The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7280 p835
20/27 December 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
OFT pharmacy report links (more)

New Economics Foundation
   Ghost town Britain crisis hidden by Christmas glitz (more)
   Report: Ghost Town Britain II: Death on the High Street (more)

Local pharmacies still under threat

The decline of local shops, including community pharmacies, is continuing, according to a report published this week. The report criticises the Government’s response to the Office of Fair Trading proposals on deregulation of community pharmacy, describing it as profoundly disappointing.

The report, “Ghost town Britain II: death on the high street”, was written by the think-tank the New Economics Foundation and provides an update to the original “Ghost town Britain” report which was published last year (PJ, 21/28 December, p877).

The new report warns that if the Government’s proposals on control of entry to pharmacy contracts are followed then the aims of the Department of Health’s “Vision for pharmacy” will be blocked. “The Government should follow its own agenda of ‘joined-up thinking’ by further enhancing the role of community pharmacists; they should be allowed to take on a broader public health role and some of the doctors’ prescribing powers,” it recommends. In particular, the report makes the following criticisms of the “balanced package of measures” for control of entry:

• The proposal that primary care trusts should consider consumer choice in applications for new contracts ignores the possibility that PCTs might have vested interests in the decisions.

• Questions remain over the criteria that will be used to determine consumer choice and whether this will lead to a postcode lottery in services.

• Making it easier for pharmacists to locate in large shopping developments is deregulation by stealth and measures are needed to ensure this has no adverse effects on local community provision.

“Ghost town Britain II: death on the high street” is available on the foundation’s website.