The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7177 p805-809
8 December 2001

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NPA opposes relaxation of rules on supervision of dispensing

Any relaxation of the current interpretation of legal requirements for the supervision of dispensing as set out in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Code of Ethics and Professional Standards will be opposed by the National Pharmaceutical Association (PJ, 20 October, p577).

At its November meeting, the NPA board decided that any move towards relaxation would be detrimental to the profession, both nationally and internationally. Public safety was a priority and community pharmacists should support the requirement that during any dispensing process every prescription should be seen at least once by a pharmacist so that a professional assessment could be carried out. Pharmacists had to be present at all times when prescriptions were dispensed or pharmacy medicines were sold. But pharmacists should be freed from the mechanical aspects of dispensing so that they could spend more time with patients and provide more cognitive services.

Other matters considered at the meeting are reported below.

New roles Appalled by a 10 per cent cut in dispensing fees, board members decided that the NPA should withdraw support for any new roles or initiatives in the Government’s pharmacy programme unless they were properly resourced.

Primary care centres A paper is to be prepared setting out the case for consortium-run pharmacies in NHS primary care centres. Board members are concerned at the potential impact of primary care centre pharmacies on the community pharmacy network in needy areas. All affected pharmacies should be given the opportunity to form a consortium in order to avoid a monopoly where one contractor could pay a large sum for exclusive rights, leading to the closure of neighbourhood pharmacies and destruction of the network.

Extemporaneous dispensing There was concern that guidelines on non-sterile extemporaneous dispensing from a Department of Health quality control working party could be set too high for community pharmacies to achieve. The NPA favoured a double standard, with basic and readily achievable requirements for simple extemporaneous preparations and more detailed standards for larger scale dispensing and more complicated preparations.

PCT/PCG task force The needs of pharmacist members of PCT/PCG executive boards are to be considered at a meeting hosted by the NPA, the Company Chemists Association and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee. The meeting will consider: NHS strategy, policy and structure; budgets, financial pressure and performance management; amalgamation of PCGs/PCTs and the formation of strategic health authorities; and reducing prescribing overspends.

NHS clinical governance guidelines There was concern that NHS guidelines on clinical governance and community pharmacy being developed by Professor Alison Blenkinsopp could not be implemented nationally without additional funding, leading to variations in the standards of pharmaceutical services. National core standards were needed. Questions were also raised concerning the updating of a Royal Pharmaceutical Society baseline clinical governance assessment written in 1999.

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