The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7195 p557-561
27 April 2002

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New funds for pharmacy diverted to other services

Funding earmarked for implementing the strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland might be being spent on other services.

Speaking at a meeting of Trust Chief Pharmacists and Scottish Specialists in Pharmaceutical Public Health in Stirling on 24 April, Frank Owens, chairman of the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council, said that pharmacists should contact the SPGC if they are having difficulties with trusts and boards over funding to implement the strategy.

Following the allocation of £4m for implementation, Mr Owens had hoped there would be rapid progress. "Then I heard of incidences around the country where boards seemed reluctant to recognise that this money was indeed 'pharmacy' money and that perhaps they had earmarked their allocation for other services," he said.

Mr Owens said that there should be no ambiguity: the £4m was solely for use in implementing the pharmacy strategy. "Trusts or boards will be held to account should they fail to deliver," he added. The SPGC is to meet the Scottish Minister for Health later this month to discuss the implementation of the strategy. Mr Owens said that at the meeting, he will raise any problems with funding brought to his attention by pharmacists.