The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7274 p634
8 November 2003

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This year, next year [more]
Beyond the Charter [more]

This year, next year

Only now are the repeat dispensing pathfinder sites in England beginning to get going — over a year after the 30 primary care trusts involved in the first wave were named. Applications for the second wave are due in next week, although the Department of Health has given a strong indication that it does not want to be inundated with requests to participate (p635). So the chances of pharmacist-led repeat dispensing being rolled out nationally in 2004 looks ever more remote.

It may seem churlish to point out, yet again, the shortcomings of the information technology network in the National Health Service in England. To be fair, this time the problem that has dogged the repeat dispensing system seems to lie less in the hardware (or lack of it) and more in the impact of the repeat dispensing module (the EMIS system) on general practitioner software.

Nevertheless, the DoH needs to come clean. What exactly is happening with community pharmacy and primary care IT strategies?

Since so much of what pharmacists hope to be able to offer in the future — under the new service-driven contract — depends on a solid IT infrastructure, it is time pharmacists knew where they stood. Will the Government be offering any financial contribution or incentives to link them to NHSnet? As each month passes and nothing specific is said, it seems increasingly likely that it will all be tied up in the contract. Pharmacists will see untold riches dancing before their eyes if they offer enhanced and additional services (PJ, 19 July, p77) — provided they invest huge sums in IT themselves.

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Beyond the Charter

Although there is still a week before the consultation on the revised draft Charter closes, there is a simultaneous consultation process going on that many members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society may have forgotten. By the beginning of December views on the structures underpinning the reformed Council are meant to have been put forward. This week, and next, The Journal is examining three different models in more detail (p657) — they were given a preliminary airing in the issue of 27 September (PDF 150K). These models are not set in stone, but are there to trigger ideas about how the professional aspects of pharmacy can best feed into the new Council. Although some members of the Society may think this is a step too far at the moment, and nothing will distract them from the outstanding Charter issues, others may think it complements the debate.

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