The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7338 p225
26 February 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Related websites
Healthcare Commission consultation PDF (1.2MB)
Contract 2005

Healthcare Commission should challenge PCT pharmacy plans

Primary care trusts in England and local health boards in Wales should be asked by the Healthcare Commission about their assessments of local pharmaceutical needs and how they will be met through the new contract.

That is the view of the Company Chemists Association set out in response to a public consultation by the commission about how it should go about assessing the performance of the NHS.

The CCA says that experience under the previous star-rating system, operated by the then Commission for Health Improvement, showed that when regulators ask primary care organisations (PCOs) what they are doing to develop community pharmacy it acts as a powerful motivator for PCOs to concentrate on pharmacy development.

As a result, the CCA takes the view that the commission should ask whether PCTs have completed pharmaceutical needs assessments and how they have been incorporated into local development plans.

Other areas about which the CCA believes the commission should question PCOs include whether or not pharmacy is integral to their primary care strategies and whether or not they have staff to support new contract issues. PCOs should also be asked if they have integrated clinical governance arrangements that avoid duplication.

The CCA is also anxious that the Healthcare Commission should question PCOs about how they ensure transparency and good governance when making decisions to commission primary care services. It believes this is necessary because GPs are the only primary care contractors who are guaranteed places on executive committees.

The National Pharmaceutical Association has adopted a similar approach to the consultation. Its response says that the commission should ask PCOs for evidence of robust pharmaceutical needs assessments followed by the development of pharmacy strategies. They should also ask for evidence that tendering processes are open and transparent and that planned services have been advertised to all.

The NPA also wants the commission to seek evidence that PCOs are developing working relationships between health professions and that there are referral pathways between community pharmacies and other parts of the primary care team.