Community pharmacies in Scotland should be compensated for the ‘financial chaos’ caused by errors with a pharmacy payment system introduced a year ago, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said.

‘In some cases pharmacies report shortfalls of tens of thousands pounds due to errors in the Data Capture Validation and Pricing process introduced by NHS National Services Scotland,’ the NPA said in a statement issued today.

‘On other occasions, NHS Boards have clawed back money from pharmacies at short notice, following processing errors that had initially resulted in an overpayment.’

And though improvements have been made recently, pharmacies continue to report ‘significant’ and ‘repeated’ issues, with ‘no notice nor clarity of what they are getting paid,’ the NPA added.

Paul Rees, NPA chief executive, said members in Scotland had reported that they ‘cannot plan, cannot settle their accounts and even face costly overdrafts or issues paying medicine suppliers because of issues with this troubled payment system’.

‘In the 21st century we should not be facing a computer shambles of this nature – it’s just wrong that hard working community pharmacies should be facing financial stress because an IT system cannot get its sums right,’ he added.

Mr Rees said government ministers were ultimately responsible for the issues with the system, and called for them to ‘intervene to make sure the system is fit for purpose’.

He also said that the government should compensate contractors that had lost out.

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.

Last month, thousands of pharmacists across the UK staged a series of protests – from turning out the lights, blacking out windows and wearing dark clothing – as part of a campaign to ‘save’ community pharmacy.