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Two serious shortage protocols (SSPs) for lansoprazole orodispersible tablets were issued by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) yesterday amid “significant ongoing disruption” to supplies of the drug.

Effective from September 9, the SSPs – one for 15mg tablets (SSP088) and one for 30mg (SSP089) – allow pharmacists to limit a supply of these medicines to one month’s worth of tablets in cases where supplies are available and a prescription has been written for longer than a month.

The two SSPs are currently set to expire on January 15, 2027.

No prescription charges are applicable to tablets dispensed under the protocols, and while pharmacists are advised to mark on prescriptions for patients who are not exempt from the £9.90 fee that the charge has been paid, no money should be taken.

“In order for the NHSBSA to appropriately amend the total monthly figures it is critical that the prescription is correctly endorsed with the SSP number,” said Community Pharmacy England, adding that pharmacists should alert the patient’s prescriber of any supplies made under an SSP.

Contractors will be reimbursed for the amount supplied, not the amount originally prescribed. They will also receive the single activity fee and a £5.35 SSP fee per supply.

CPE, which has previously warned that a “large number” of SSP claims received by the NHSBSA are deemed invalid due to incorrect endorsements by PMR systems or pharmacy staff, advised contractors to “regularly reconcile the value of SSP fees on their payment schedules against the number of SSPs declared on the FP34C submission form”.

Related: Pharmacist who dispensed two brands without SSP and committed CD breach warned