Open chlamydia screening bids to all, says NPA
The National Pharmacy Association said this week that it would expect the national roll out of free chlamydia screening through community pharmacies to be open to all NPA members.
The statement follows the Department of Health’s announcement that
Boots The Chemists has been awarded the contract to provide
free chlamydia screening across London (PJ, 27 August, p245).
The NPA says in the statement that it has “already provided the
DoH with a mechanism for ensuring this could happen, even if national
procurement rather than the preferred locally commissioned enhanced service
was the chosen route”. It adds: “We will continue to work
with the Government to seek to ensure all our members can benefit from
such initiatives in the future”.
Last week, the DoH published materials to help strategic health authorities
and primary care trusts establish the national chlamydia screening programme. “National
chlamydia screening programme — Phase 3 guide” has been developed
following experience implementing the programme so far. Its contents
are not designed to be prescriptive, but rather to facilitate the development
of common structures, processes and outputs, the DoH says.
The guide describes the key functions of a chlamydia screening office,
the role of a chlamydia co-ordinator and how to deal with negative results.
It also contains treatment guidelines, including the patient group direction
for azithromycin and doxycycline.
The guide is available from the Department of Health website |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader