P H Freeman, a supplier, was paid more than £650 for its bespoke coconut oil

The owner of the high street chemist Boots charged the NHS as much as £1,500 for single pots of moisturiser that others have sold for less than £2.

Boots sent a £1,579 bill to the health service for one 500ml tub of a specially made cream for patients with skin problems in 2016, according to payment records seen by The Times.

It had bought the medicine from BCM Specials — a supplier that was owned at the time by Boots’s parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance. The same quantity of the same mixture of creams is prescribed regularly around the country for as little as £1.73.

The case is among thousands where the NHS appears to have been overcharged for drugs called specials. These are