The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7275 p671
15 November 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Out-of-hours health services get extra funding from DoH

An additional £28m for the development of out-of-hours health services in England has been pledged by the Department of Health. The money is intended to help primary care trusts which may find it more difficult to provide adequate out-of-hours cover if general practitioners choose to opt out of providing these services under the new GP contract. PCTs will be responsible for all out-of-hours cover by December 2004, although GPs are able to start opting out from April (PJ, 26 April, p568).

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the National Pharmaceutical Association are jointly working on a resource pack on out-of-hours medicines services. This is expected to be issued in draft form shortly, ahead of official guidance from the Department of Health, which is due before the end of the year.