Community pharmacy must fight for its future
Community pharmacy must fight for its future if that
future is to be healthy, according to Sue Sharpe, chief executive, Pharmaceutical
Services Negotiating Committee. It cannot rely on Government support.
Mrs Sharpe, speaking at the Institute of Pharmacy
Management’s autumn conference on 5 October in Birmingham, said that pharmacists
must remember that desirable developments to date, such as the discussion
of pharmacist prescribing rights and patient group directions, had been
initiated by pharmacists not Government. Government was ambivalent or
even sceptical about community pharmacy and its place in the National
Health Service family. An acknowledgement of the skills pharmacists can
bring to the table did not equate to a commitment to develop those skills,
she emphasised.
She went on to say that Government appears uncomfortable
that community pharmacy operates through successful business. “Community
pharmacy is probably the most successful public private partnership within
the NHS, but this is not recognised or celebrated.” There was little evidence
that it appreciated the extent to which community pharmacy reduces the
demand for NHS services.
This might be a gloomy view, she continued, but
unless it is addressed, “we have major problems and so, ultimately, does
the NHS.” Community pharmacy therefore has to define and sell its future
role. “The case for community pharmacy is still to be made. The fact that
we have the pharmacy plan should not lull us into a false sense of security.
The battle has not yet been won. It can be, and will be, but it will be
tough.”
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