Unscheduled care payments announced in Scotland
Community pharmacists in Scotland are to receive funding in recognition of the pressures they face in the out-of-hours period. An overall sum had been promised as part of the new pharmacy contract deal and this week it was announced how the sum will be distributed among contractors.
Details of the funding, called “unscheduled
care payments”,
are set out in an NHS circular. The Scottish Executive says the payment
is to cover “demands arising from recent changes to the pattern
of primary medical services and patient referrals by NHS24”.
An integral part of the unscheduled care provisions is the patient group
direction (PGD) that allows pharmacists to make urgent
supplies of medicines in the out-of-hours period (PJ, 3 December 2005, p682). However, the
unscheduled care payments will not be linked to use of the PGD but be
paid on the basis of the number of hours a pharmacy is open. The payment
scale ranges from pharmacies open more than 30 hours per week down to
those open for between five and 10 hours a week. Pharmacies open for
more than 30 hours a week will receive an annual payment of £1,260.
Alex MacKinnon, head of professional services development communication
and external relations at the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council,
said that the payment is good news. “It is important it is not
tied to the PGD because that is a professional tool,” he commented.
Mr MacKinnon explained that the payment will be reviewed after a year. “We
need to quantify the workload over the next year and identify exactly
what the fall-out from the GP contract means for community pharmacy.
But this is a fairly reasonable first attempt,” he said. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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