UniChem convention 2003
|
 UniChem’s 2003 convention was held in Dubai from
26 September to 3 October. The convention was attended by more
than 300 participants and the theme was “Perception is reality”.
This week’s coverage examines how pharmacists
and general practitioners can work more closely together. Dawn Connelly (on the
staff of The Journal) reports
|
Pharmacists must work in partnership with other health care
professionals
Chris Town: pharmacists are needed on PCT committees |
Community pharmacists must create and improve relationships with primary
care trusts, said Chris Town, chief executive, Greater Peterborough Primary
Care Partnership (an alliance of two primary care trusts and social services). “If
you haven’t already got a pharmacist on the professional executive
committee of the PCT then I urge you to do so,” he said.
Mr Town explained that PCTs will hold the new general practitioner contract
from 1 April 2004 and that, in his opinion, the new community pharmacy
contract will be implemented by PCTs from 1 April 2005.
Mr Town chairs the tripartite meetings between the NHS Confederation
(representing PCTs), the Department of Health and the Pharmaceutical
Services Negotiating Committee on the new pharmacy contract. He said
that all parties are anxious to ensure that, when the new contract rolls
out, there are people with adequate skills within each PCT. “To
me, it is essential that, as part of the team, there is a qualified community
pharmacist who understands the rules,” he said.
Mr Town went on to say that he believes that both of the new contracts
offer opportunities for pharmacists, technicians and assistants. They
could take on new roles, for example, in supplementary and independent
prescribing, in improving concordance and in medicines management.
So how can all this be achieved? Mr Town recognises that these opportunities
will require a significant time commitment from community pharmacists
if the benefits are to be delivered. He believes that this can be tackled
through changes in skill mix and improvements in information technology. “First,
I think we do need urgently to change the supervision rules and allow
an expanded role for technicians,” he suggested. “Second,
we need to invest in information technology to carry out the functions
I described.” Pharmacists need to have real time access to patient
records, he added.
It is also essential that local pharmaceutical committees work together
with the profession and PCTs in promoting these exciting opportunities
and challenges, he concluded.
New contract for GP will allow partnerships with pharmacists
Co-operative working between pharmacists and general practitioners
has benefits in sharing of workload, demand management, the extension
of prescribing roles and in medicines management, said Dr John
Chisholm, chairman of the General Practitioners’ Committee, British Medical
Association.
The new GP contract will allow mixed alliances, with pharmacists,
managers and nurses increasingly entering partnerships with doctors,
said Dr Chisholm. “At the heart of the contract is giving practices
great flexibility and autonomy in how they deliver services, allowing
them their own choices as to how they organise the care of their patients,
while judging them on the quality and outcomes of the care they provide,” he
explained.
The new pharmacy contract also needs to reflect the expectations
of patients and facilitate enhanced roles for pharmacists and GPs,
he told participants.
Dr Chisholm commented that it is perhaps not surprising that many
aspects of the GP and pharmacy contracts are similar. Features common
to both contracts include a wish to improve the range and quality
of services, an emphasis on quality, not quantity, categorisation of
services,
an element of choice in commissioning services, changes in funding
flow, better use of skill mix, undertaking of new roles, and development
of the two contracts in parallel.
Dr Chisholm concluded by saying that although he is an enthusiast
for interprofessional working and he believes that many GPs will
welcome pharmacists taking on extended roles, there is still work to
be done
in convincing some doctors, who may perceive these changes as an
undesirable threat.
During a question and answer session, Kirit Patel, chairman of the
Day Lewis group, asked whether the movement being seen towards doctors
owning pharmacies within surgeries would drive a wedge between the
two professions just when they are trying to work together.
Dr Chisholm commented that from a patient’s perspective there
are advantages in co-location and that close working between doctors
and pharmacists is going to result in better medicines management. “I
don’t see that there is a fundamental conflict of interest that
cannot be resolved,” he said.
John D’Arcy, chief executive of the National Pharmaceutical Association,
disagreed: “There is a conflict, but the question is whether
it can be managed.”
He added that this was an issue that the NPA took up in its response
to theOffice of Fair Trading report. “It is important that we
make sure that it doesn’t become the agenda and get in the way
of the real agenda, which is working together, ” he said.
UniChem has no plans for patient deliveries
During the question and answer session, John Nuttall, a pharmacist
from Nantwich, Cheshire, asked if wholesalers would move into making
supplies direct to patients.
Geoff Cooper, deputy chief executive, Alliance UniChem, responded: “We
could, but we don’t think we would make any money at all.”
However, he does think that there will be a role for some wholesalers
in helping pharmacists, for example, with mail order delivery of pharmaceuticals.
Any deliveries would be made to patients on behalf of the pharmacies
the patients visited, not on behalf of wholesalers. |
