The development of local and national networks was a prerequisite for the future of pharmacy, Mr Barry Andrews (executive chairman, Moss Pharmacy) told Sheffield local pharmaceutical committee's annual dinner on June 30. As well as proving more successful, both financially and in terms of service delivery, some of the more positive options for future pharmacy services would require such networks, he said.
He predicted that pharmacist prescribing would fail to move forward if the pharmacy network did not provide sufficient coverage at a local level. Co-operation by eight pharmacies in Bootle and the establishment of a local prescribing support programme by a local pharmacy network on the west coast of Scotland were excellent examples of networks of pharmacies working together successfully, he said.
Mr Andrews added that LPCs were coming under increasing competition from pharmacy development groups, especially since the quality of LPCs varied widely. In his opinion, going it alone or attempting to represent sectional interests would only lead to success in the short term. "It will be the more inclusive networks, which themselves create a partnership within the profession that look like being more successful in the long term," he said.
Mr Andrews went a step further in his predictions and said that, in his view, independent pharmacies would only survive and prosper in the future if they worked together as a network. The paradox was that independents would only survive if "they think and act like multiples".