Pharmacist fined for cheap drug charges

Abstract

A pharmacist in Gwent who was fined £550 last week for refusing to levy NHS prescription charges on cheap drugs will take his case to Europe if the Welsh Office does not overturn the ruling against him. Allan Sharpe, owner of Sharpe the Chemist in Newbridge on Usk, has been treating NHS prescriptions for paying patients as private prescriptions if the drug costs less than the standard £5.25 charge. Mid-Glamorgan Family Health Services Authority and Gwent Health Commission, which launched the original complaint against Mr Sharpe, have refused to comment to the press. The disciplinary tribunal told him that his …