3. Underpinning Knowledge - Legislation and Professional Issues

Military primary healthcare medical centres are broadly similar to dispensing doctors practices in the NHS, where the doctor in charge delegates the dispensing function to a suitably trained individual. However, only large medical centres have retained their in-house dispensary. The remaining, smaller medical centres have outsourced the dispensing process to designated community pharmacies under a Ministry of Defence (MOD) contract. Community pharmacies not covered by the contract will not routinely handle military prescriptions.