Let patients choose, DDA tells contract review
Patients should be able to choose who they want to dispense their prescriptions, the Dispensing Doctors' Association has told Anne Galbraith, who is reviewing NHS pharmaceutical services.
A joint submission from the DDA and the General Practitioners Committee
of the British Medical Association said: “It is vital that any
change in regulation does not allow well-resourced providers to create
a monopoly of supply which could eventually put smaller providers out
of business and thereby deprive patients of choice.”
It added: “We recognise that doctors and pharmacists have differing,
but complementary, skills and see the future of dispensing as being one
of close co-operation between the two professions.”
The submission said that only pharmacists and doctors are suitably qualified
to supervise dispensing and that this should not change, but that joint
supervision of dispensing outlets by doctors and pharmacists should be
allowed.
The DDA and GPC also called for equity of reimbursement and remuneration
for dispensing services, saying: “The total cost to the NHS of
dispensing an item should vary neither by geographical location nor by
the professional group supervising the service.” They also said
that profit should remain built into the reimbursement system, or market
forces would not operate and the cost of medicines to the NHS would rise.
Currently, doctors who dispense and pharmacy contractors are reimbursed
the same basic price for any medicines they supply, but their remuneration
is calculated differently. Dispensing fees for doctors range from £2.045
per item to £2.309 per item, compared with 90p per item for pharmacists,
and there is a separate range of allowances.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader