New rural dispensing settlement agreed
Regulations to implement a new agreement between pharmacists and doctors
over dispensing in rural areas and market towns are to be drafted by the
Department of Health.
Lord Hunt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health) announced
at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee's annual dinner on
March 12 that he had asked the Department's lawyers to draw up new rules
to govern applications for dispensing rights in rural areas.
These would be based on an agreement reached between the PSNC, the General
Practitioners Committee and the Dispensing Doctors Association after three
years of negotiations.
The joint proposals would benefit both pharmacists and GPs, the Minister
said. They would also benefit patients because there would be less disturbance
in dispensing arrangements and better relationships between pharmacists
and doctors. The new regulations will prevent the establishment of dispensaries
in surgeries in areas that are already well served by nearby pharmacies
and will discourage new pharmacies in small rural communities where viability
is questionable.
They will also ensure that no applications to dispense in rural areas
are granted unless health authorities are satisfied that to do so will
not prejudice the proper provision of either medical or pharmaceutical
services to any community. This will include new partnerships formed by
the amalgamation of dispensing and non-dispensing practices and the opening
of additional pharmacy premises in rural areas.
The PSNC chairman (Mr Wally Dove) said that the agreement removed the
threat of doctor dispensing in market towns and the vast majority of rural
situations and provided stability in rural dispensing.
Leading article, p341
LPCs conference report, p344-8
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