The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7436 p95
27 January 2007

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Pharmacy bodies call for new advanced services

More services in the community pharmacy contract should be centrally funded, the national pharmacy bodies told the All-Party Pharmacy Group this week at the sixth evidence session of its inquiry into the future of pharmacy.

“We need to drive new advanced services in obesity, sexual health and minor ailments, with centrally agreed funding structures — I think that has to be the way forward,” said Sue Sharpe, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.

However, Sandra Gidley, the pharmacist LibDem MP for Romsey, took the view that uptake of the current advanced services has been extremely disappointing.

“If the profession cannot be seen to deliver enthusiastically on MURs, which are core business, does that not indicate that there may be less enthusiastic uptake of the other services,” she said.

Mrs Sharpe pointed out that changes in skill mix and supervision, which will support pharmacists in providing MUR services, have not yet happened.

Howard Stoate, chairman of the APPG, asked what could be done to improve pharmacists’ relationships with GPs.

Georgina Craig, head of communications at the Company Chemists’ Association, suggested that incentives were needed to encourage GPs to work more closely with pharmacists and that quality and outcome framework (QOF) points would be a powerful way of doing this.

Mrs Sharpe highlighted the fact that the community pharmacy contract was initially negotiated to complement the General Medical Services contract, which was envisaged as a vehicle for moving a raft of treatment from secondary to primary care. “For a number of reasons, possibly the pursuit of QOF points … that has not quite worked,” she said. The Department of Health needs to play an active part in working out why these drivers in the GMS contract are not working, she added.

In response to a question about pharmacists’ lack of engagement with practice-based commissioning, John D’Arcy, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, emphasised the importance of involving pharmacy right at the beginning of planning health care strategy. “The problem is getting pharmacy around the table at critical points,” he said. This issue is beginning to be addressed by the formation of the Health Policy Forum, a collaboration of key pharmacy bodies (PJ, 13 January, p39), the inquiry heard.