IT development integral to pharmacy’s future
IT will be an integral part of practice in the future, said Lindsay McClure, head of information services, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, at the local pharmaceutical committee representatives’ conference held this week in London. “It is important that community pharmacists get to grips with the terminology
and what is happening.”
Many IT developments will happen relatively soon. Implementation of the
electronic transfer of prescriptions, for example, is in the first phase
of the NHS Care Records Service and is due to start in 2005. A difficulty
currently facing pharmacy system suppliers is that they will be asked
to supply new systems quickly but that the specifications for these systems
are still unclear, commented Ms McClure. Specifications are expected
within the next six to nine months. The Government will also consult
shortly on another aspect of NHS Care Records Service — pharmacist
access to patient records.
An IT sub committee has been set up by the PSNC, NHS Confederation and
Department of Health in order to feed information into the new contract
negotiations. It is examining hardware and software requirements, connectivity
and the transitional arrangements that will be needed while the IT is
being introduced. Work is also under way to assess what will be required
in order to connect pharmacies to N3, the new national network that is
replacing NHSnet.
What is clear is that funding to upgrade pharmacists’ IT will not
be granted in the same way as it is for GPs. “Pharmacy is not in
the remit of the local service providers,” said Ms McClure. In
other words, although primary care trusts are responsible for provision
of IT to doctors, the same will not apply to community pharmacists. “Pharmacy
has been specifically excluded from that,” said Sue Sharpe, PSNC
chief executive. “Funding will be negotiated through the new contract.”
Asked whether pharmacists would be held to ransom over connection to
N3, ie, that they would have to pay for connection in order to meet the
new contract, Mrs Sharpe said she thought not. Discussions to date indicated
that there would be a one-off payment for initial connection of pharmacies
to N3, she confirmed. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal