Help produced for pharmacies on getting involved with LIFT projects
Guidance about how to involve community pharmacies with primary care redevelopment projects, under the National Health Service Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT), is being offered to pharmacy owners and pharmaceutical advisers.
LIFT is a £1bn initiative from the Department of Health aimed at
improving the quality of primary care premises in England. Pharmacy bodies
and wholesalers have said that LIFT
could have a major effect on pharmacies
in areas where it is running (PJ, 26 July, p106).
The National Pharmaceutical Association has produced a resource pack
which can be used by community pharmacies and pharmaceutical advisers
at primary care trusts. Claire Jones, assistant head of NHS service development
at the NPA, told The Journal that it is vital to have a community pharmacy
strategy included as part of PCT strategic service delivery plans (SSDPs).
“The plans for LIFT projects come from the SSDPs, so pharmacists
locally need to push for getting a pharmacy plan into these so that PCTs
recognise
that they have to take pharmacy into account when looking at redeveloping
medical services.”
The NPA advice is that PCTs need to take a long-term view of how community
pharmacy services may change as a result of the new pharmacy contract
and repeat dispensing. “In future, patients may not be visiting
GP surgeries as much as they do now and surgeries may not be the best
places for pharmacies,” Ms Jones said. “Pharmacies need to
be considered as NHS service providers rather than just third-party income
streams.”
The NPA pack is available from its NHS service development department
on 01727 858687 ext 3217.
Robert Andrews, director of Statim Finance, the financial arm of AAH
Pharmaceuticals, said that pharmacy owners would have to decide whether
to join one-stop centres or to develop their existing businesses further
through refurbishment. |
