the GMS contract is designed in such as a way as to specify what you can charge registered patients for, rather than saying that you may charge for everything that is not in the contract.
Clause 19.1.1 says you may not charge ?for any prescription? except in the circumstances set out in clause 19.1.2?. Subparagraph (g) of this goes on to say you can charge ?for treatment consisting of an immunisation for which no remuneration is payable by the Board and which is requested in connection with travel abroad?.
This means that you cannot charge a registered patients for issuing a prescription for any immunisation that is not related to travel, even if the patient is not eligible for it as an NHS service.
However, If a product is available for UK prescription and not blacklisted you can, in theory, prescribe it if, in your clinical judgement, that is the right thing to do. The difficulty here is that this is a novel vaccine that is being provided through the NHS by population cohort – in the usual way – for obvious reasons of cost and supply. As a rule we therefore advise against NHS contractors providing vaccinations outside the national programme in any but exceptional circumstances.
With an immunisation like this for which there is a fair amount of public demand, it can also be difficult to draw a distinction between those who should or should not be immunised as exceptional cases.
All in all, the LMC thinks that it is generally better to refer patients requesting these immunisations to another provider unless there are good clinical reasons or expert advice that one should be given.