Minister fails to make expected announcements
Rosie Winterton: final agreement soon |
Health minister Rosie Winterton made many positive comments about pharmacy in her speech to the annual Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee dinner in Westminster this week. However, she failed to make any concrete announcements on either the contract or control of entry, despite previously suggesting that she would (PJ, 14 February, p199).
The new contractual framework has been the major initiative for community
pharmacy this year, said Ms Winterton. “Your 95 per cent approval
of that outline framework is a powerful endorsement of the need for change,
and I am determined to match your positive commitment.” However,
she was not able to give any new details about the contract. “We
are now all very keen to reach a conclusion to our negotiations and I
want everyone involved to work towards a final agreement as soon as possible,” she
said.
Final decisions on the balanced package of measures produced in light
of the Office of Fair Trading’s report on control of entry have
yet to be made. “I know you are anxious to hear what lies ahead
but I would ask you to bear with us a little while longer,” said
Ms Winterton. She did announce the publication of a summary of the expert
advisory group’s report on control of entry (see p269) which is
likely to influence Government thinking. A further announcement will
be made shortly and changes to the regulations will be published later
this year, she confirmed. “We will implement these in tandem with
the new contractual framework,” she added.
Ms Winterton also announced the publication of the responses the Department
of Health has received to its Vision for pharmacy (see p271). The responses
were positive about the Government’s intent to achieve better integration
of community pharmacy in the NHS, she commented.
“I believe strongly that pharmacy is very much on the front line
of our health services but together we need to change perceptions about
pharmacy’s
role, change the way pharmacists work with others, and get across to
other parts of the health service and Government that pharmacy is key
to improved service planning and delivery,” Ms Winterton said.
In order to help change perceptions, new guidelines on how community
pharmacies can use the NHS identity on corporate material will be published
later this spring. “I am very keen that pharmacies should be branded
as part of the NHS,” she explained.
“Discussions on developing a framework for independent NHS prescribing
by pharmacists began last week,” said Ms Winterton. Other new developments
she mentioned include a consultation on public health in light of the
Wanless report and proposals on allowing community pharmacists access
to patient’s clinical records.
Speaking to The Journal after the Minister’s speech, the Liberal
Democrat shadow health secretary, Paul Burstow, said that the real test
for the Government was whether or not it could deliver a contract that
provided pharmacists with sufficient confidence to develop sustained
relationships with others in primary care and remuneration that reflected
quality. “There is also an issue of the lack of synchronisation
between the roll-out of the new GP contract and the roll-out of the new
pharmacy contract,” he added.
Mr Burstow is particularly concerned about how new IT will be funded
in pharmacies. “The Minister said that pharmacists needed access
to records but gave no indication of how that would be paid for,” he
said. In order to find an answer, Mr Burstow asked the Government on
2 March to outline its programme of funding, including a timescale, for
providing NHS IT for pharmacy in a written answer to Parliament. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal