Five key issues for independent pharmacists to consider were identified by Mr Gaz Clapinski (a Numark shareholder and member of the board of the National Pharmaceutical Association). They were medicines management, repeat dispensing, pharmacist prescribing, health promotion and clinical governance.
Speaking on October 13, Mr Clapinski said that medicines management would be a reality, and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee was already looking at methods of funding it.
Repeat dispensing would be good for patients and for the National Health Service because, among other things, it unclogged congestion in doctors' surgeries. Mr Clapinski said that the NPA was piloting a repeat dispensing project and that the results would be available soon.
Pharmacist prescribing would happen in the not too distant future, he believed.
On health promotion, Mr Clapinski said that pharmacists had to improve and be more proactive about health promotion if they wanted to be taken seriously.
Finally, he said that all health care professionals would be subject to clinical governance, which was looking to raise standards through audit, research and development. It would not go away.