Pharmacy risks marginalisation if contract fails, AAH warns
If pharmacy fails to deliver the services outlined in the new pharmacy contract other professionals will take these revenue streams, according to Steve Dunn, group managing director of AAH Pharmaceuticals.
Speaking at The Pharmacy
Show, a trade exhibition held in Birmingham
earlier this week, he said: “If we fail to prove that we can deliver
in this new landscape — then the chance will be lost forever and
other groups of professionals will take this opportunity and revenue
stream. Pharmacy will be marginalised and condemned to inevitable
decline.”
Mr Dunn suggested that the requirements for pharmacy to follow a service
provision agenda were not going to go away and that there needed to be
a strong focus on management and the structure of pharmacy, both in terms
of the team and the organisation of the pharmacy itself.
Mr Dunn reminded pharmacists that practice-based commissioning gives
doctors the responsibility for recommending local health needs. “You
need to be talking to the doctors, working with them to define local
health needs and at the same time keeping your
eye on the primary care trust and ensuring that they know you can play
a role in the
delivery.”
Mr Dunn also examined some of the concerns being raised following the
decision by Pfizer to use UniChem as sole distributor of its products
(see News feature, p477). |
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