Pharmacy is to feature prominently in the National Health Service's winter advertising campaign following work by the National Pharmaceutical Association's public relations department with the NHS Executive's communications team on the winter planning strategy.
The campaign will focus on promoting self-medication and encouraging people to make the best use of the available health care options during the millennium period. Community pharmacies are identified as having a key role to play during this time and one of the core messages of the campaign is for people to ask their pharmacist for advice. The campaign will run for six weeks from the end of November (see p733).
The NPA board was pleased to note that Mrs Veronica Wray (head of public relations, NPA) had been working with the NHSE and that pharmacy was prominent in the press advertisements.
Other matters considered at the NPA board's October meeting are reported below.
NHS Direct NPA executives had met the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, Ms Gisela Stuart, during a visit to the Essex NHS Direct pilot site (see p734). This had provided the opportunity to promote community pharmacy involvement in the NHS Direct initiative. Ms Stuart had been enthusiastic about community pharmacy and was keen to know more about pharmacists' ability to advise on minor ailments. She was interested to learn that, on average, a quarter of all interventions in a pharmacy did not result in a sale, highlighting the important role pharmacists had in giving general health care advice and referring people to other health care professionals. The NPA had highlighted the potential for using community pharmacies as part of the NHS walk-in centre initiative.
NPA representatives had also had a meeting with Mr Robert Hill, a senior policy adviser to the Prime Minister and the main force behind the NHS Direct initiative. Mr Hill had visited Essex to learn about the pharmacy pilot and to discuss how it fitted in to the wider development agenda for the profession. At the meeting, the association's representatives raised a number of issues surrounding community pharmacy involvement in NHS Direct. These included using pharmacy as a fourth disposition for callers, enhanced NHS Direct access points in community pharmacies, and the importance of a face-to-face NHS Direct service, particularly for older people and those in deprived areas.
Internet sales The board received an update of lobbying activity in relation to the European directive on e-commerce. The NPA, as part of the United Kingdom delegation to the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU), was trying to influence policy makers at European and national levels to introduce legislation which would ban the marketing and sale of medicines to the public through the internet.
The UK delegation had recently met officials from the Department of Trade and Industry to discuss how the Government planned to implement the forthcoming European Directive on e-commerce in the UK, and how the legislation would address the issue of medicines on the internet.
The UK delegation had emphasised its desire to see a ban on the sale and promotion of all medicines through the internet in the interests of patient safety. Further meetings on the directive would be sought with officials from the Department of Health and the Medicines Control Agency.
In its response to the Government's e-commerce White Paper "Modern markets: confident customers", the NPA stated that while it welcomed the opportunities presented by the internet to improve communications for pharmacists, it had serious concerns about promoting medicines for sale via the internet. It urged the DTI to liaise closely with the Department of Health in drafting its legislation and to give pharmaceuticals special consideration in order to protect consumers and public health.
PPRS The NPA had contacted the British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers about recent price reductions resulting from the new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme. During October several members had contacted the NPA to say they believed that not all of the price reductions made by pharmaceutical companies had filtered through to them and that they were still being charged by wholesalers at the previous, higher price for some drugs. The NPA had been reassured by the BAPW that these backlogs in price amendments should have been cleared in good time.
The NPA has put a list of all PPRS price changes, which were effective from October 1, on the members-only pages of its website (www.npa.co.uk).
Party conference The board heard that the community pharmacy stand at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth had been well received (PJ, October 9, p559). The stand had been financed and manned by the NPA, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, and the Company Chemists Association. Local pharmacists hasd manned an "Ask your pharmacist" advice booth.
Pharmacy representatives had taken the opportunity to highlight important community pharmacy issues to visitors to the pharmacy stand, including Labour Party delegates, journalists, Members of Parliament and Ministers.
New board member Mrs Brigid Gunn has been elected as board representative for South West of England.
Mr Matthew Shaw, one of the NPA's team of community pharmacy development co-ordinators, addressed a recent nurse prescribing conference, talking about the pharmacist's role in nurse prescribing. The NPA also presented a poster about its nurse prescriber support pack. The NPA's stand at the conference (pictured) was well attended. Many of the nurses who visited the stand said that they would promote the pack to their pharmaceutical advisers.