Scotland leads the way again
Once again, Scotland has come up with a first: a solution — albeit partial — to a problem besetting primary care all over Britain. This time it is in response to the decision made by many GPs in April not to provide out-of-hours cover that has left some people unable to see a doctor to obtain essential supplies of medicines unless they visit an accident and emergency department.
In Scotland, a national patient group direction has been established
that will enable patients to obtain their medicines — provided
they have previously had a repeat prescription for the same medicines
from a GP in NHS Scotland — from pharmacists during the evenings
and weekends (p682). The supplies can be for the full prescription and
not just the five days’ supply allowed when a conventional emergency
supply is requested. Pharmacists in Scotland are also to be given a one-off
payment that will cover the extra workload that they will experience
out of hours between Christmas and the end of February.
These moves accord with Government aims in all home countries to make
better use of pharmacists, bearing in mind the easy access that members
of the public have to them.
And it is a theme that is reflected in the views of the All Party Pharmacy
Group, whose chairman Howard Stoate has just written to Patricia Hewitt,
Secretary of State at the Department of Health, about the forthcoming
White Paper on primary care and social care (p678). One of the key points
made by the APPG is: “[Pharmacists’] accessibility and trusted
status, combined with the positive effect of the new contractual framework
within which they are now operating, enables you to use them as a principal
means of delivering improvements in primary care.”
It will, of course, be much more convenient for patients when pharmacists
pick up the services discarded by GPs. However, effort and resources
should be concentrated on the development of services that pharmacists
can provide which will actually improve patients’ health and well
being — and not just on developments that reduce GPs’ workload.
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Retention fees 2006
Christmas is coming and, along with the fatted goose, Society members can expect the arrival of the less-than-welcome annual retention fee demand. This year
the forms should be with pharmacists during the week beginning 12 December,
giving them roughly six weeks to make the appropriate payment before they are
sent striking-off warnings. This week we carry an article explaining the new
fee structure in a question-and-answer format (p706 PDF (50K))
that should answer most members’ queries.
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