Summaries of responses sent to health and trade ministers on OFT report

Boots The OFT estimate of cost savings from deregulation is "significantly overstated", being nearer £1m than the £16m quoted by the OFT. Significant shortages of pharmacists and pharmacy staff could generate wage inflation costs of around £100m in community pharmacy and up to £40m in NHS organisations, Boots says. The company suggests a number of amendments to the current regulations, including non-returnable fees and deadlines for processing applications, in order to speed up the system and reduce costs.

Lloydspharmacy According to a survey carried out for Lloydspharmacy, 74 per cent of United Kingdom residents fear that their community pharmacy might close if control of entry is abolished. The company has identified 6,624 pharmacies within the catchment area of two or more supermarkets and which could be under threat.

NPA The National Pharmaceutical Assocation has sent a comprehensive response (PDF 145K) to the OFT report to ministers. It says that it is not clear what problem the OFT is trying to fix. It calls the OFT report "less than conclusive" about potential financial savings and says that to deregulate "with all its attendant risk to service provision" on such estimates would be disproportionate and open to judicial review.

New Economics More than one pharmacy a day could close if removing control of entry means that community pharmacy follows the trend of other local services, the New Economics Foundation says in "A lethal prescription", an update to its report "Ghost town Britain" published last year (PJ, 21/28 December 2002, p877). The update looks at the OFT report, which it says has "attempted to find a solution to a problem that does not exist", and finds that it has missed the central role of pharmacies in providing health care and social functions to their local communities.

Nucare Nucare fears that as many as 3,624 community pharmacies are at risk of closure over the next five years if the OFT recommendation is implemented. The majority of these would be independents, it says. Nucare says that on its analysis, if the Government was to take over all NHS dispensing itself through premises that did not have over-the-counter sales it would lose £55,000 a year on each pharmacy and have £125,000 tied up in each in stock and fixed assets.

PSNC The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has identified 858 pharmacies in England and Wales that are more than one mile away from a doctor's surgery and sit within a five-mile radius of a supermarket that does not currently have a pharmacy. The long-term viability of these pharmacies could be at risk, it says. The PSNC also says that increasing the number of pharmacy contracts would reduce the discount recovery by between £5.6m and £10.5m as average NHS dispensing volumes fall. The assumption by the OFT that no pharmacies would open if there was already one within 300m of a GP surgery is questioned by the PSNC. It says that GPs themselves would open pharmacies, in which they would have a financial interest, creating local monopolies.

Public health The United Kingdom Public Health Association and PharmacyHealthLink, two charities with an interest in public health, say in a joint statement that the ability of the NHS to use community pharmacies to improve public health would be reduced if deregulation occurred. They note that supermarket pharmacies have been unwilling to participate in, or have withdrawn from, extended services to vulnerable groups such as drug misusers and women seeking emergency hormonal contraception.

RPSGB The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has asked the Government (PDF 15K) to "carefully consider the potential effects on the quality of and access to health care" of implementing the OFT recommendation, saying that planned expansion of pharmacy services would be better for the public than "commercial attrition". It is also concerned about current workforce shortages being exacerbated.

SPF The Scottish Pharmaceutical Federation has told the Scottish Executive that it rejects the OFT report and urges it to do likewise. It said that it would make a detailed response if requested to do so. Any concerns about the current system should be discussed as part of the forthcoming new contract, it says.