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Letters to the Editor
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Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin
Disappointed with Department of Health decision
From Miss M. V. Mott, MRPharmS
I would like to express my concern and disappointment that the contract
for the Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin, provided centrally to the NHS,
is to be stopped. I am at a loss to understand the rationale for this decision
and have written to Patricia Hewitt urging her to reconsider.
I have just attended a staff briefing at which our chief executive outlined
plans to save money within the trust, including a significant number of
redundancies. This is to occur in an environment where staff are already
routinely working over their core hours, without remuneration, just to
provide basic patient care.
I am one of the lucky ones and get to keep my job. However, I have to make
vast reductions (up to 80 per cent) to the amount I spend on the resources
I need to do my job. The DTB is one of these key resources. The UK Medicines
Information network considers the DTB to be an essential reference source
for all medicines information centres. My colleagues and I rely on the
unbiased, high-quality information in such bulletins to provide clinically
effective and cost-efficient medicines information to clinical colleagues
and to underpin formulary development.
By decentralising the funding for this essential resource it will end up
costing the NHS more in the long run. Alternatively, patient care will
be compromised by trusts that decide they cannot afford to subscribe or
which sacrifice other essential resources in order to fund this one. I
find it difficult to comprehend why the decision to end the contract has
been taken when it is resources like this that enable NHS procurement budgets
to be made as cost-efficient as possible.
In summary, I strongly suggest the Department of Health reconsiders its
position. The DTB is a nationally recognised, gold-standard resource that
is essential for provision of cost-effective health care in the NHS.
Victoria Mott
Lead Medicines Information Pharmacist
The John Radcliffe Hospital,
Oxford |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal