All change for the worse
At least from the beginning of this century community pharmacists have been urged to make contacts with those people in primary care organisations (PCOs) who are responsible for service development.
The need to network and influence these people took on a new momentum
with the announcement of the details of the new contracts, and the need
for community pharmacists to tell their PCOs what clinical services they
were already providing or might be interested in doing in the future.
Many pharmacists have found this difficult, not least because PCOs have
been more concerned with implementation of the GP contract, and taking
up offers from other health care professionals has been a low priority.
Now matters look set to take a turn for the worse. The Government’s
plans to reconfigure the primary care landscape in England have been
outlined in the policy paper “Commissioning a patient-led NHS”,
which was published in July. The intention is to reduce the number of
primary care trusts and make administrative savings in the region of
15 per cent but changes also seems likely to disrupt the establishment
of new clinical services. Moreover, pharmacists, who have been urged
to forge links with their local PCT, may find that the contacts they
have made no longer exist if, and when, staff are made redundant.
The anxieties are shared by pharmacists in PCTs (see News
feature p476)
and by the chairmen of many professional executive committees, over 100
of whom were surveyed by the NHS Alliance and the Health Service
Journal.
Nearly 90 per cent of those surveyed said that the reconfiguration would
damage engagement with nurses and allied health professionals. In addition,
58 per cent said patient care would suffer as result of the cuts each
organisation is expected to make as it undergoes reconfiguration and
63 per cent believed that the changes would have a negative impact on
service innovation.
Not only that, with the shift to GP practice-based commissioning starting
in 2006, pharmacists will have to turn full circle and start negotiating
with, and selling services to, their local GP colleagues. Some pharmacists
will welcome that change in emphasis, others will see it fraught with
difficulties.
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Helping in the aftermath of the earthquake
Pharmacists with relatives and friends in the areas of northern Pakistan and its neighbours devastated by the weekend's earthquake, as well as many other members of the profession, will wonder what they can do to help. Although
many may wish to send medicines, that may not be the most beneficial action.
According to The Journal’s investigations (p471), money will
be more use.
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