The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7367 p326
17 September 2005

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How to value yourself more
Is the end really in sight? more

How to value yourself

Many community pharmacists in England and Wales are still struggling to meet the 1 October deadline for the implementation of the new pharmacy contract in terms of essential services — let alone advanced services. The announcement, last week, of the specifications for the first batch of enhanced services will have done nothing for their morale.

Nearly a year ago, when community pharmacists in England were sent the new contract booklet by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, they were told to expect that national benchmark prices would be agreed and published for enhanced services. It would then be up to pharmacists to negotiate with their local primary care trusts to strike the final deal because no national funds were to be made available for these services.

Now the PSNC has announced a “better approach” to pricing and is going to leave pharmacists in England to do all the negotiations themselves (although it is intending to produce a toolkit to help with pricing jointly with the Department of Health and the NHS Confederation). The PSNC cites a number of reasons for this change of direction (see Panel, p342 PDF (100K)), none of which would have been undermined if benchmark prices had been established.

No one will benefit from this state of affairs, with the exception of primary care trust managers, who are finding it hard to balance their books and pay for the new GP contract, let alone find extra resources to fund innovative pharmacy services. As a News story (p327) reveals, neither multiples nor independents believe they will benefit and may be actively deterred from developing enhanced services if there is no national framework in which to negotiate.

The Journal is happy to help. We invite pharmacists who manage to negotiate the provision of an enhanced service to send the basic financial details to us and we will post them (anonymously if requested) on PJOnline. These should give other pharmacists the confidence to approach their PCTs armed with some idea of the value of their services.

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Is the end really in sight?

Do we see a chink in the Department of Health's armour? Having prevaricated for years on a move to original patient pack dispensing on grounds of cost, the DoH has just launched a consultation “to simplify the reimbursement arrangements for NHS dispensing contractors” (p329). Among the ideas put forward is that pharmacists can round a prescription up or down (unless the prescriber specifically forbids it) to match the available pack size. The sting in the tail is that pharmacists would only be reimbursed for what is prescribed. But it is a step in the right direction and, provided pharmacists are not out of pocket in the long run, a possible end to cutting and snipping may be in sight.

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