Recommendation 7

We asked the Department that given the pharmacy scheme involved an unusual and novel use of public money and in relation to the entire episode with Greensill Capital whether HM Treasury’s initial scepticism about the use of supply chain finance in the NHS has been validated. The Department told us that knowing what it knows now, it would not embark on the scheme again. The Committee asked a broad question about the large percentage of suppliers to government—in the high 90%s—paid within 30 days and many paid even more quickly than that and why that mechanism could not have been used at the time the pharmacy scheme was introduced. The Department highlighted that the new scheme for reimbursing pharmacies that has been introduced following the Greensill collapse means that, as of the month of November, pharmacies send their prescriptions to NHSBSA by the fifth of the month and are reimbursed by NHSBSA in four working days.8