December 8th 2025
The DDA has published a political briefing document outlining the challenges to dispensing practice in England.
Dispensing Practices in England: Addressing The Disparities makes 10 recommendations for MPs to ensure the sustainability and parity of dispensing GP practices in England.
Its recommendations mirror a similar briefing paper for Welsh Senedd members published in November and follow podcasts with DDA Board Members explaining the challenges in England and Wales.
These include an emergency stabilisation payment for dispensing GP practices, capitation-based funding for dispensing, a reform of drug reimbursement and discount abatement (clawback), uplifted Dispensing Services Quality Scheme (DSQS) payments and funded EPS implementation and longer prescribing intervals and efficiency measures without financial penalty.
The document points out that dispensing practices’ costs have risen sharply over the past decade, while dispensing fees have barely changed. Without reform, the continued erosion of dispensing income, combined with exclusion from innovation funding, risks destabilising rural healthcare provision.
The briefing paper explains dispensing practice challenges including:
Read the document in the library of political lobby documents
