Call for “desirable” to be restored to control of entry test wording
Changing the wording of the control of entry test from “desirable” to “expedient” has made the NHS Act 2006 null and void, the National Pharmacy Association has argued.
The NPA has asked Lord Hunt, the minister with responsibility for pharmacy,
to restore the original “necessary and desirable” wording
under new powers in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 without
the need for a further Act of Parliament. The wording
of the control of entry test for new pharmacy contracts in England was
changed in the
NHS Act 2006 and the NHS (Wales) Act 2006 last year (PJ, 18 November
2006, p596). The Department of Health said the change was to achieve
consistency and that there would be no change to the criteria used to
assess applications.
John D’Arcy, NPA chief executive, commented: “This is not
a matter of tidying up definitions. Twenty years of judicial scrutiny
have allowed community pharmacy and the NHS to reach a position of relative
certainty as to what words mean and how they will be interpreted in decision
making. Changing ‘desirable’ to ‘expedient’ will
allow old applications to be challenged and encourage new applications,
opening the floodgates to anyone wishing to challenge a PCT decision.” |
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