APPG writes to Hewitt on care outside hospitals
Pharmacies are easily accessible |
Community pharmacists' accessibility and trusted status, along with the new community pharmacy contract, will enable them to be used as the principal means of delivering improvements in primary care, says Howard Stoate, chairman of the All-Party Pharmacy Group, in a letter to the Department of Health about its forthcoming White Paper on out-of-hospital care.
Dr Stoate sets out key recommendations formulated by the APPG after meeting
with relevant stakeholders and collecting information on developments
already taking place in community pharmacy.
Dr Stoate says that providing the public with choices of services and
provider is important as a means of improving access. “However,
people need good quality information so that they can make informed choices,” he
argues. He recommends that pharmacists’ role in information and
advice, including signposting, should be recognised in the White Paper
as a means of developing and promoting choice.
Dr Stoate stresses that a better balance between treating illness and
maintaining good health needs to be achieved. He highlights the role
that pharmacists have in health promotion and treating minor ailments
and says that the White Paper should recognise that the role of health
promotion “sits naturally” with community pharmacies.
He also believes that the White Paper should encourage primary care trust
managers and other health professions to make full use of pharmacists
when commissioning local services. The development of these services
requires the commitment of NHS funding, he says. “Community pharmacies
and other service providers need to know that the investment they are
required to make is for the long term and that primary care funding is
put in place on this basis,” he adds.
He highlights that reorganisation of PCTs remains a concern. He is worried
that progress made in getting PCT managers to recognise how pharmacists
can help deliver improvements for patients, largely through pharmacy
representation on professional executive committees, will be disrupted.
Lastly, Dr Stoate emphasises the need for pharmacies and GP practices
to have IT connectivity and for pharmacists to have access to the national
care record system. |
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