Half of trusts outsource outpatient pharmacy services to avoid VAT

摘要

Half of NHS trusts now outsource their outpatient pharmacies in an effort to save on tax, according to NHS figures, despite union leaders saying this practice is detrimental to staff pay. Figures from the most recent 'Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Benchmarking Project' report, published in December 2019, show that 50% of the 106 NHS trusts that supplied data have a 'subsidiary' outpatient pharmacy — 34% of trusts had outsourced the service to a commercial firm, with 16% having created a 'wholly owned subsidiary' (WOS) pharmacy.