The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7207 p87
20 July 2002

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PSNC (www.psnc.org.uk)

PSNC waits for new Minister over offer

A remuneration offer for community pharmacy in England is awaiting Ministerial approval, but has probably been delayed by the recent appointment of David Lammy as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health.

Following the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee's July meeting, Sue Sharpe, PSNC chief executive, said: "The Department's officials' proposals were put to Hazel Blears before she was moved on. They are now with David Lammy. We would expect and hope that he will want to learn about pharmacy before making a decision. Officials can give us no steer as to when we can expect it."

Mrs Sharpe hopes that the recently announced 3.6 per cent remuneration increase for Scotland (PJ, 13 July, p43) is not indicative of the sort of settlement pharmacy south of the border can expect.

"Given the volume increase we are seeing that would certainly not be an acceptable level. In the past couple of year Scottish volume increases have not been on the same lines as our own and the Scottish payment structure differs from our own quite significantly."

Reports on other matters considered at the PSNC's July meeting follow.

New contract Work has begun with the Department to determine a structure and method for developing a cost-of-service model to establish a baseline for remuneration in the new contract. The cost of providing pharmacy services has not been properly measured since the end of the cost-plus contract in April 1989. Mrs Sharpe said that she expected the new contract to include a higher level of national services than at present, plus a menu of other services that could be selected at local level. The national menu should include standards and frameworks that would help local pharmaceutical committees and primary care trusts negotiate locally. "We want to be sure that all pharmacies that can meet higher standards can be paid for that," she said.

Skill mix The Departmental report on skill mix needs in community pharmacy, expected before the end of last year, is still awaited. "We keep asking the Department when it will be available, and keep being told 'in the near future'," Mrs Sharpe said. Like the remuneration offer, this might have been delayed by the recent ministerial change.

Repeat dispensing The PSNC is concerned that repeat dispensing trials (PJ, 29 June, p895) should be properly costed and funded. "The Department must recognise that pharmacists are taking on extra responsibilities for patients," Mrs Sharpe said. "Pharmacists will have to remind patients to get a new prescription when one is coming to an end. There will be significant management and administration involved, which we are concerned to see properly recognised."

Supplementary prescribing The PSNC shares the National Pharmaceutical Association's view (PJ, 6 July, p5) that there is no need to separate supplementary prescribing and dispensing because two professionals will be involved in the process. Separating the two roles would act as a brake to the roll-out of supplementary prescribing in the community. The PSNC is also concerned that insisting on 25 days' training will not make best use of pharmacists' time, given current workforce issues in community pharmacy.

Exemption checks Prescriptions for which no exemption declarations have been made but which bear computer-printed birth dates that indicate prescription charge exemption are to be accepted indefinitely by the Prescription Pricing Authority.