The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 265 No 7108 p183
August 5, 2000 News

Profession waits to see details of NHS plan for pharmacy

Professional bodies representing pharmacists have given a guarded welcome to the national plan for the National Health Service in England with most wanting to see further details of the proposals for pharmacy.

RPSGB The expanded role for pharmacists outlined in the National Health Service plan has been welcomed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
The President (Mrs Christine Glover) said on July 27: "The Society is looking forward to working with the Government on the implementation of these proposals and the further integration of pharmacy into NHS services.
"We fully support the Government in its drive to ensure that the health regulatory bodies are strengthened and reformed to ensure that they can properly serve the needs of the public and the health service. Our own proposals for reform of our disciplinary machinery encompass greater representation of non-pharmacists on the new tribunals and will provide for more comprehensive and more effective procedures. We have an excellent track record within our present outdated legislation, but we need to be able to do more.
"We look forward to the establishment of the UK Council of Health Regulators [see p184], a forum for sharing best practice and problems. We already have substantial dialogue with other regulatory bodies."

APPG The chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Pharmacy Group (APPG) said that the Government's national plan for the NHS offered an opportunity for pharmacists to be a driving force for radical change. Dr Howard Stoate (Lab, Dartford) pointed to the plan's commitment to reshape services around the needs and preferences of customers, individual patients and their families. That should mean more flexible pharmacy opening hours offering greater convenience to patients and customers. He said: "The Government is looking for a radical rethink on the delivery of services and that will place pharmacies very much in the front line. It will move pharmacists much more up the agenda." Dr Stoate added that as community pharmacists tended to work long hours in any case, they were best placed to deliver the sort of patient-centred services that the Government was looking for.

The Health Secretary says that pharmacists will have a greater role in terms of giving advice to patients

NPA The National Pharmaceutical Association welcomed the commitment to repeat dispensing schemes but said that it would be seeking assurance that such schemes were available from community pharmacies.
The NPA said that it was disappointing that although the Government was committed to connecting all GP practices to the NHSnet by 2002, it made no reference to the need to include community pharmacies.
The NPA was delighted with the plan to include community pharmacy as a referral option at all NHS Direct sites, but it added that a properly funded out-of-hours community pharmacy service was needed if pharmacists were to work alongside NHS Direct and the NHS walk-in centres.
The NPA expressed frustration that a specific case for pharmacist prescribing was not made in the plan. It said that pharmacists' case for prescribing was "indisputable". The intention in the plan to make a wider range of non-prescription medicines available was welcomed, but the NPA said that this was not an alternative to a prescribing role for pharmacists. The NPA wanted to see contracts of the personal medical services type (or personal pharmaceutical services, as it called them) based on the foundation of the dispensing service and based in community pharmacy.

GHP The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists said that an increase in bed and hospital numbers would require a substantial increase in hospital pharmacists.
Mr Ian Simpson (professional secretary, GHP) said: "It is most encouraging to see the Government's commitment to invest in NHS staff. Although hospital pharmacists are not specifically mentioned in the plan, it is hoped that they will be included in the 6,500 more therapists and other health care professionals to be employed. Seven thousand new beds and 100 new hospitals will require a substantial increase in hospital pharmacy staff."
The guild welcomed the proposal to improve NHS pay and wanted to see the market forces supplement applied to groups of staff experiencing recruitment difficulties, as well as to geographical areas.

PSNC The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee's chairman (Mr Wally Dove) said that he was waiting to see "the flesh put on the bones" of the NHS plan. In general he was "cautiously optimistic" about the effects which the plan would have on community pharmacy.
"We are delighted to see that much of the hard work we have undertaken in recent times is reflected in the plan. In particular, the Government has committed itself to the development of medicines management and repeat dispensing in community pharmacies," he added.