OTC medicines will be considered in contract applications
Primary care trusts will be able to consider the provision of over-the-counter products when deciding between competing applications for community pharmacy contracts in England, draft
legislation published last week confirms.
Draft Statutory Instruments amending the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services)
Regulations 2007 state that, when determining which of competing applications
should be granted, “a PCT may take account of any proposals specified
in the applications in relation to ancillary chemist services at the
premises in question”.
“Ancillary chemist services” means, the regulations say,
the sale or supply (other than by way of pharmaceutical services or in
accordance
with a private prescription) of medicines and other products for the
prevention, diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of illness or the promotion
or protection of health.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee strongly
opposed the inclusion of these new criteria when the Government first proposed them
in 2005 (PJ, 30 July 2005, p129). “If the availability of over-the-counter
medicines were to be taken into account by a PCT when considering an
application for inclusion in a pharmaceutical list, then it would also
need to consider the availability of such medicines from non-pharmacy
retail outlets in the neighbourhood. This cannot be an appropriate matter
for the PCT to consider and would in any event be almost impossible for
the PCT to determine,” the PSNC said in its response to the proposals.
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