The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7367 p327
17 September 2005

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Enhanced services expected to cause problems

Few community pharmacists in England are likely to find it easy to deliver enhanced services under the new NHS pharmacy contract. The National Pharmacy Association thinks that things will be difficult for multiple companies and individual proprietors think that they will find it hard too.

John D’Arcy, National Pharmacy Association chief executive, said that he was disappointed that no national benchmark prices had been set. “This makes things very difficult for pharmacists on the ground. A menu of prices would have stopped a lot of haggling, but it is difficult to see how it could have been enforced.”

He added that things would be particularly hard for multiple contractors who would have to deal with large numbers of PCTs.

“A single-handed contractor is going to be a lot more agile at making local agreements,” he said.

But Lincolnshire pharmacist Noel Baumber believes that small businesses will struggle too. “People are too busy with the essential services at the moment,” he said. “I don’t think that there’s a great deal of enthusiasm around.”

The absence of the expected benchmark prices from the service specifications published last week (PJ, 10 September, p299) means that primary care trusts will be able to pick their own figures, Mr Baumber warned.

He said: “If they had priced some of them it would have given PCTs and local pharmaceutical committees an idea of the basic cost.”

Another potential problem could be that pharmacies will find themselves at the back of the queue when they try to obtain enhanced services funding unless they start talking to their primary care trusts now.

Ajit Malhi, professional services manager at AAH Pharmaceuticals, warned that PCTs have limited funds for commissioning services and pharmacists risk finding that all the available money had been allocated elsewhere.

In many cases, he warned, PCTs do not understand how pharmacists can offer added value over other professionals, such as GPs.

If they are to gain funding, pharmacists need to be making robust propositions to PCTs that show how they will make quantified savings or improvements in patient outcomes by implementing specific services, Mr Malhi said.

Contract 2005