CCA blames primary care trusts for lack of new pharmacy services
Insufficient creative thinking among commissioners and a lack of appropriate incentives for GP support is holding back the delivery of patient-centred services by pharmacies, according to the Company Chemists Association.
In evidence to Anne Galbraith’s review of the arrangements for
pharmacy contracting, the CCA said that not all primary care trusts had
taken seriously their responsibility to fund advanced pharmacy services.
The association called for the development of advanced services under
the national pharmacy contract to support smoking cessation, sexual health
improvement, obesity reduction and a national minor ailments scheme.
The association would also like to see incentives in the GPs’ quality
and outcomes framework to encourage use of the repeat dispensing service
and other forms of collaboration between GPs and pharmacies.
To support better service commissioning, the CCA suggested that PCTs
should map the market of willing providers of new services and better
articulate the business case for new services in order to increase the
level of interest from potential providers.
The submission also contains a clear warning against any major change
of direction from the current contract. It said that companies had invested
in good faith and that the Department of Health must recognise that the
environment and drivers conducive to private sector business investment
are very different to those of the NHS.
“Constant reviews do not make for confidence and certainty,” the
CCA said. “Community pharmacy makes decisions for long-term investment,
so there needs to be a reasonable expectation of a sustainable service
in order for the case to be made.”
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