Act now or risk relegation to second division of the NHS
Steve Dunn from AAH Pharmaceuticals |
When pharmacists deliver useful services commissioning bodies will realise that pharmacy is worth engaging, Steve Dunn, group managing director at AAH Pharmaceuticals told pharmacists and suppliers at the annual AAH convention in Athens this week.
“If we fail to seize this opportunity then it may be lost forever
and pharmacy would be relegated to the second division of the NHS, condemned
to battle perpetually against a growing number of other service providers
for a reducing share of the pie,” he said.
Mr Dunn argued that pharmacists need to work out how to gain access to
money that has been devolved to primary care trusts in the new contract. “Pharmacy
needs to … understand the commissioning process and to understand
how it can ally itself with locality-based commissioning such that pharmacy
plays a major role in ensuring the delivery of health care services in
the community.”
Mr Dunn told participants that to prove to the health care community
that it can make a real and effective contribution to the new NHS, pharmacy
needs to start with service delivery, such as medicines use reviews (MURs). “Pharmacy’s
track record so far is patchy. The best has been excellent but the majority
have still failed to grasp the opportunity to move into the brave new
world represented by the new contract,” he said.
MUR wizard AAH has several programmes to support pharmacists in
delivering the new
contract. At a workshop held during the convention
the wholesaler demonstrated its MUR wizard, a programme that uses
known information to automate the MUR process as far as possible.
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Meeting report p683 |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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