Reid admits there may be advantages for multiples
John Reid said Government gave what protection it could on control
of entry |
John Reid, Secretary of State for Health, has acknowledged that there are possible advantages for the multiple pharmacy chains in the NHS in the future. He was speaking at a briefing organised by Labour Friends of India, an independent parliamentary group, last week.
Suggestions were put forward that the new contract potentially disadvantages
a number of contractors and may affect the diversity and choice that
the Government is aiming for, and that its implementation may lead to
closure of independent pharmacies and an increase in the number of pharmacies
owned by multiples.
In his reply, Dr Reid said that other governments might have accepted
the findings of the Office of Fair Trading on control of entry, but that
his Government gave “what protection we could”. He went on: “Although
you feel that the traditional way in which you do things is coming under
pressure from bigger chains, I hope you accept that we have tried to
free up the market to give new opportunities for pharmacists, such as
in diabetes screening and in public health. I accept the tendencies towards
a monopoly but hope that you can accept that we have done something to
mitigate that.” Dr Reid also recognised that the global sum was
far short of the figure that some pharmacists had expected. “You
got £300m more out of Rosie [Winterton] than I had wanted to spend
at the beginning. I know it is several hundred million pounds short of
the global sum that you wanted but I hope that it is a fair figure.”
Ash Soni, chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Association, suggested
that a risk with the new contract is postcode style delivery of enhanced
services, which could create pockets of poor practice. He asked Dr Reid
how best practice will be delivered across all primary care organisations.
Dr Reid replied that there will always be a tension between wanting to
decentralise decision making to primary care trusts and the desire to
make sure there is a national standard that everyone will meet.
“
To try to bring the two together we have decentralised decision making
but asked the National Institute for Clinical Excellence to look at those
services and treatments and decide which of them ought to be available
to everyone in England and which ought to be at the discretion of individual
PCTs.” |
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