The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7231 p40
11 January 2003

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DoH: Pharmacy Workforce in the New NHS (more)
PSNC response (PDF* 80K)

Department of Health's skill mix paper shows limited vision, the PSNC says

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has dismissed the Department of Health's skill mix discussion paper as showing little vision of how pharmacists' skills can be used to deliver better care through the National Health Service.

Although the skill mix paper asserts a commitment to a strong and developing community pharmacy service, the PSNC response says that there is nothing in it, or elsewhere in Government policy, that sets out how this commitment will be implemented.

The PSNC wants to see a new national contract supplemented by locally negotiated services to meet specific health needs and local priorities. It takes the view that development of the pharmaceutical service will be frustrated if new services are not set in the framework of a national contract. Particular developments that the PSNC wants to see are the introduction of free non-prescription medicines for people who cannot afford to buy them and community pharmacy-based medication reviews.

"We can see no sense in developing medication review within primary care centres, rather than community pharmacy," the PSNC says.

One reason for this, which the PSNC also cites in opposition to keeping pharmacies open when pharmacists are absent, is the congregation of primary care practitioners in large health centres, which forces patients to travel further, and for longer, to get health care.

"As Government commitment to a strong and developing community pharmacy service becomes manifest we should ensure that the services are available from every community pharmacy," the PSNC says. "Today, the community pharmacist is the only instantly accessible health care practitioner."

Proposals to delegate dispensing to appropriately trained and regulated staff meet with PSNC approval. It says that regulation should include conduct and discipline, as well as training and continuing professional development. To achieve delegation, the PSNC supports reinterpretation of the requirement in the Medicines Act 1968 for pharmacists to supervise dispensing, not its abolition. That pharmacists should have to be present at some point between the receipt of a prescription and the handing over of dispensed medicines is the PSNC view. It points out that there is no definition of the meaning of supervision in the Medicines Act or in any case law.

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