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Over a fifth of pharmacy items rejected for NHS reimbursement in the year to June came from prescriptions written by NHS dentists and community nurse prescribers, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has said.

Data held by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has revealed that around 32,000 items were disallowed between July 2025 and June 2026, of which around 7,000 were items not permitted to be prescribed by the dentist or community nurse prescriber responsible.

CPE advised contractors that before dispensing prescriptions issued by these health professionals they should ensure “that the items ordered are listed in their respective formularies and that the prescriber holds the appropriate qualifications to prescribe the items”.

Community nurse prescribers may only prescribe medicines included in the Nurses Prescribers’ Formulary for Community Practitioners, in contrast to nurse independent prescribers who may prescribe for any condition within their clinical competence and nurse supplementary prescribers who may prescribe any medicine as agreed by the patient and their doctor as part of the patient’s clinical management plan.

Dentists may only issue FP10D prescriptions for items listed in the Dental Prescribing Formulary which, for example, lists amoxicillin capsules but not amoxicillin tablets.

CPE said it has been “several years” since these formularies were developed, adding: “Many listed products are no longer available and should be deleted from their respective formularies.”

The negotiator said it has urged the Department of Health and Social Care to review and update to formularies “to reflect the latest prescribing guidelines and product availability”.

CPE also encouraged contractors to check their disallowed items history and challenge any decision from the NHSBSA to disallow item that the pharmacy owner believes was made in error.

Related: ‘Review NHSBSA performance’: Minister grilled on ‘withheld’ Pharmacy First payments