Scottish bodies give evidence on new Bill
Pharmacy organisations in Scotland have been giving evidence over the past two weeks to the Scottish Executive about the new Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Bill. They were generally supportive of the principles of the Bill but raised some questions around the fine detail.
The Bill was published late last year (PJ, 1/8 January, p5) and the Scottish
Executive health committee is now hearing oral evidence. Part 3 of the
Bill covers pharmaceutical care services and sets out the legislative
changes needed to implement the new pharmacy contract in Scotland.
“This Bill is the most important piece of legislation for community
pharmacy in Scotland since the introduction of the NHS. Achievement of
the policy
objectives will change the face of community pharmacy practice, extending
the range and improving the quality of services provided,” the
Scottish Executive of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society said in its submission.
The Society also gave detailed evidence on part 4 of the Bill, which
proposes strengthening the disciplinary powers of the NHS over health
professionals, including pharmacists who provide pharmaceutical care. “It
is essential that these duties are discharged equitably, efficiently
and effectively, and that there are clear links with the disciplinary
processes of the professional regulatory bodies,” the Society said.
It is concerned about the speed at which disciplinary procedures will
take place and who will be responsible for paying pharmacists who are
unable to work while such disciplinary processes are ongoing (since most
are employees of pharmacy companies or are self-employed locums).
In other evidence, the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council stressed
the importance of not destabilising the pharmacy network and for health
boards to recognise community pharmacists as the providers of choice
for pharmaceutical care services.
Although the SPGC supports formal planning of the provision of pharmaceutical
care services, it wants the benefits of control of entry regulations
to be retained. “The SPGC remains concerned that the new process
for the granting of a contract for pharmaceutical care services is still
not clear. Will the current criteria of ‘necessary and desirable’ be
replaced by a new set of criteria or will they remain in place but be
more objective in nature,” it asked.
Both organisations hoped that their concerns would be allayed once the
full regulations are published. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader