Scotland committed to community pharmacy
Scotland's new health plan is evidence of the Scottish Executive's commitment to community pharmacy, according to Frank Owens, chairman of the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council. The plan, “Delivering
for health”, puts preventive health care based in local communities
at the top of the NHS agenda (PJ, 5 November, p564).
Mr Owens said he is particularly pleased that it emphasises that the
four services in the new contract will be phased in from April 2006 to
April 2007. “Central to this roll out will be the provision of
an appropriate supporting IT infrastructure,” he said.
“The Scottish Executive Health Department and SPGC have already
agreed that neither the minor ailments service nor the chronic medication
service
should roll out until all community pharmacies in Scotland are connected
to the NHSnet [N3] and that IT suppliers have an appropriate e-solution
available,” Mr Owens explained.
N3 connection is almost complete, and the SPGC is currently assessing
the preparedness of software suppliers for the electronic minor ailments
service. “Results so far indicate a high degree of confidence,
with some suppliers already able to install software upgrade packages
and others finalising plans over the next few weeks,” Mr Owens
said. Talks on financial support are ongoing.
This week, the Scottish Executive also published a document explaining
how the vision set out in “Delivering
for health” will become
a reality. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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