The Government has announced a review of the domiciliary oxygen service, currently provided on prescription by community pharmacies and oxygen concentrator suppliers.
Having received a specially commissioned report on domiciliary oxygen therapy from the Royal College of Physicians, the Department of Health is to ask pharmacy organisations, patient groups, medical Royal colleges and other professional associations for their views on the following five points:
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has already set up a working party to consider the implications of the RCP report and the review.
Mr Stephen Axon (general secretary, PSNC) told The Journal on March 28 that the report considered the clinical needs for oxygen therapy.
He indicated that the PSNC would not wish to see the role of community pharmacists in oxygen therapy put at risk.
"Pharmacists provide considerable added value and convenience to patients," he said. "This is something that must be maintained. Pharmacists are appreciated and relied on by patients. Its is not just a question of supply, but of the service you get with it."
Mr Axon added that the PSNC was working to find out what patients thought of the pharmacist's role in oxygen therapy.
"So often with this sort of inquiry patients' views are the last thing to be looked at," he said. "Whenever there are problems, even with oxygen concentrators, it is to the pharmacist that people run."