Electronic integration is crucial
There may an uncertain future for community pharmacy in the National Health Service, in England in particular, unless every pharmacy is linked to the NHSnet and has appropriate technological support. This
is a high priority in Wales and community pharmacists in Scotland have
already been promised NHSnet
connection, with funding available to
achieve this (PJ, 2 August, p139). The situation in England is less
clear.
This lack of clarity underpins the Department of Health’s attitude
to pharmacy: it wants the services pharmacists provide to be fully integrated
into the NHS, but when it comes to providing the resources to achieve
that, it puts up a smokescreen and claims that, because pharmacists are
independent contractors and part of the private sector, providing IT
support is not its business. As a result, as the President of the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society, Dr Gill Hawksworth, said in her address (see
p371) to the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Harrogate this week: “Often
the commercial element subsidises the professional service.”
What can pharmacists do to be fully integrated into the primary health
care team? The answer is not much if they do not have electronic access
to patients records. Supplementary prescribing for community pharmacists
is a non-starter (after all community pharmacists who run clinics in
GP surgeries are working as primary care pharmacists); similarly, repeat
dispensing, medicines management and medication review depend on access
to patient records, and efficient transfer of prescriptions will ultimately
only be achieved electronically.
As the President said in her speech: “We are concerned that there
is still no clarity on how community pharmacy is to be integrated into
the crucial new IT programmes that the NHS is currently investing in.”
Rosie Winterton, Minister of Health, announced further expansion of pharmacy
services in her speech to the BPC (p372), mentioning many of the services
that are reliant on electronic communications. Although she accepted
that the IT infrastructure needed improvement, there was no announcement
of any major investment.
The Department of Health cannot continue to have it both ways, and needs
to make up its mind whether pharmacists should be fully integrated into
the health service or remain semi-detached.
It can show its commitment to pharmacy so easily by providing the resources
to give every community pharmacy electronic access to the NHSnet. The
profession in England should not have to wait another year.
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