News: Primary care pharmacy 'not the way forward'

The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7167 p415-420
29 September 2001

Primary care pharmacy “not the way forward”

Having pharmacists working in primary care is not the way forward, the chief pharmaceutical officer for Scotland, Bill Scott, believes. Such pharmacists would be better employed working in community pharmacies, he feels.

Mr Scott said during a question time session on 25 September at the British Pharmaceutical Conference that pharmacists could be pixies or pixels — either doctors’ little helpers or part of the big picture: “Primary care pharmacists are the pixies. Primary care is dragging our best pharmacists away from community to help doctors with their formularies. The best way to care for patients is on an individual basis, as happens in community pharmacy where they see all the patients.

“Primary care pharmacy is not the way to go. These people have to be engaged working in community pharmacy.”

Dr Jim Smith, chief pharmaceutical officer, Department of Health, did not accept Mr Scott’s view. He told the conference: “I do not agree with Bill’s pessimism. We do need a balance, a mixed economy. The growth of primary care pharmacy has been a huge success and a good thing. The bedrock of pharmacy has to be an accessible community pharmacy service but I do not think that primary care pharmacists should be corralled back into the community.

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