The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7228 p836
14 December 2002

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National Pharmaceutical Association (www.npa.co.uk)

NPA tells Department of Health not to change supervision rules for pharmacy

The National Pharmaceutical Association has told the Department of Health that it supports proposals to make better use of community pharmacy staff but says that the Department should not change things so much that pharmacies are allowed to operate without a pharmacist present.

The NPA response to the Department's skill mix discussion paper (PJ, 5 October, p469) was finalised at the November meeting of the NPA board. It says that any change that allows pharmacists to be absent from their pharmacies is neither necessary nor in the best interests of the public.

The board believes that the Department's discussion paper overplays the demand for off-site roles and gives insufficient weight to the fact that most roles set out in "Pharmacy in the future" (PJ, 16 September 2000, p384) are based in pharmacies. The primary focus should be on such roles as medicines management, repeat dispensing, supplementary prescribing and treating minor ailments. Pharmacists should be in pharmacies at all times to assess every prescription and to be available to patients.

Board members accept that maintaining a requirement to assess prescriptions might not free sufficient time for pharmacists to perform other roles, but say that this is not an acceptable argument if there is concern for public safety. The solution, they believe, may lie in the national implementation of repeat dispensing because pharmacists need only be involved in initial assessment of the prescription and thereafter if patients ask questions or make comments that suggest there are problems.

The board recognises the benefit in extending pharmacy-based services into the community by, for example, providing a domiciliary medicines management service, saying that consideration should be given to trained technicians carrying out domiciliary visits and referring patients to pharmacists if necessary.

In addition to ensuring safety, board members believe that the presence of a pharmacist in the pharmacy at all times is vital to plans to improve access to care by treating common ailments, supplying medicines under patient group directions and taking referrals from NHS Direct.

Although the board supports making full use of all pharmacy staff, it is concerned about the cost implications of training, competence assessment and regulation. The full cost, it believes, should not fall on employers. If, after careful consideration, there is no public safety case for imposing certain levels of training or compulsory registration for support staff, then it is unreasonable for the Government or the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to do so.

Other matters considered at the board's November meeting are reported below.

Ministerial meeting Terry Hannawin, NPA chairman, and John D'Arcy, NPA chief executive, met David Lammy, Under Secretary of State for Health, and Dr Jim Smith, chief pharmaceutical officer, at the Department of Health. The Minister had agreed that pharmacists played a vital role in local communities. In the light of the impending Office of Fair Trading report on pharmacy, he was left with the message that regulations were needed to encourage a rational distribution of pharmacies. He was also told that the NPA did not believe there was a need for registration of dispensing technicians.

Three-year planning An NPA guide to the Department's three-year planning guide, which sets national priorities and targets for the NHS and social care organisations (PJ, 16 November, p701) is being finalised. The guide summarises the targets and outlines how community pharmacists can help primary care trusts meet them. It includes arguments to support investing in additional pharmaceutical services and identifies resources to help pharmacists develop their services.