Pharmacists not reimbursed for collaborative costs
Some community pharmacists are being expected to give up to two days of their time free in order to supplement a £4m Department of Health project.
The £4m was awarded to 28 primary care trusts earlier this year
to run the Community
Pharmacy Framework Collaborative to encourage PCTs
to work together to share their learning, avoid duplication and facilitate
the spread of good practice (PJ, 7 May, p535). Starting this
month, the selected PCTs are expected to host a series of workshops to
tackle aspects
of the new pharmacy contract, such as pharmaceutical needs assessments,
repeat dispensing, clinical governance and medicines use review.
But the National Pharmacy Association now says that most of the money
has been used by PCTs to pay for project management.
“
This is a welcome initiative and the NPA is keen to support it and help
make it a success,” John D’Arcy, NPA chief executive, said. “But
it is unreasonable to expect pharmacy contractors to attend a series
of two-day workshops and cover their own locum, overnight accommodation
and travel costs. I’m certain that no other primary care contractors,
including GPs, would be expected to work in this way.”
Mr D’Arcy acknowledged that some PCTs had used their allocated
money to cover pharmacists’ costs for attending workshops and data
collection.“This is good news for those pharmacists involved, but
is of no consolation to those whose PCTs have not been able to find the
funds. Perhaps the real issue is that the project has not been allocated
sufficient funds by the DoH.”
The NPA has raised this, and other issues, with the National Prescribing
Centre, which is co-ordinating the project. It says that the NPC has
been helpful in trying to address such issues as difficulties taking
part in the project during the summer holiday season and data sensitivity.
Richard Seal, director of medicines management at the NPC, said: “The
majority of PCTs, despite the short timescales, have already identified
resources to enable their pharmacy contractors to participate actively,
using the flexibility provided by the Department of Health funding.”
“We will be working closely with all of the host PCTs over the
next few weeks to ensure that they make good use of the range of funding
sources
available to them,” he added.
Correction
In this report of concern that pharmacies were not being reimbursed costs incurred in taking part in the Department of Health’s community pharmacy framework collaborative, the National Pharmacy Association claimed the scheme had £4m of DoH funding. The correct figure is £2.1m. |
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