Great advances in development of new contract but still work to do
Barry Andrews: funding must be fair |
Development of the new contract for community pharmacists is well advanced but there is still much work to do, Barry Andrews, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, told the annual PSNC dinner this week. Negotiations between the PSNC, Department of Health
and NHS Confederation continue. “While some potentially challenging
issues remain ahead of us, including funding, we have been reassured
that the discussions so far have been built on a shared agreement as
to what we are seeking to achieve,” he said.
“The new contract is all about extending and modernising services
in community pharmacy. But of course it will stand or fall on the issue
of funding,” he
said. “Current funding arrangements are unfair. Future funding
must be fair. The new contract must bring with it a new funding system,
one that fairly rewards quality and service rather than the current system
that under-rewards volume-based work.”
Community pharmacists are willing to invest in their pharmacies, but
without fair funding for NHS services there is no business case for investment,
Mr Andrews said. He pointed out that community pharmacists can only plan
investment on the basis of stability and certainty, something that is
affected by the Office of Fair Trading’s proposals on control of
entry. “To deliver the new contract pharmacists will have to make
additional investment in their pharmacies. They are hardly likely to
do that if the changes to control of entry create volatility,” he
said.
“One area in which community pharmacy can and will do much more
is minor ailments,” said Mr Andrews. “We estimate that if
just a third of the patients who go to their GP with a minor ailment
instead went
straight to the pharmacy, the NHS would save over half a billion pounds
each year.” Mr Andrews said that minor ailments services needed
to be co-ordinated via the new contract. About half of PCTs have identified
a need for a minor ailments service and about 30 per cent are beginning
to develop them. “But a nationally co-ordinated approach will speed
up progress and reach those PCTs that have not yet turned their minds
to it,” he commented.
Other issues Mr Andrews discussed were the need for PCTs to engage with
community pharmacists and new IT in pharmacies. “Community pharmacists
are going to need to be included in the NHS IT revolution,” he
said. “Pharmacists need to see patients’ records if we are
going to make these interventions fully effective and value-adding, and
we need to access those records electronically. IT infrastructure needs
to be funded as part of the new contract,” he said. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal