The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7480 p608
1 December 2007

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Hanging on the White Paper

Don't underestimate impact of pandemic

Hanging on the White Paper

There is some good news for pharmacists in England. Health minister Ben Bradshaw has confirmed that primary care trusts are not going to be able to raid monies destined for pharmacy when responsibility for distributing it is devolved to them, after the Health and Social Care Bill comes into force sometime next year (p611).

In other respects, however, pharmacists in England are playing a waiting game. David Colin-Thomé, national clinical director for primary care, speaking at the National Pharmacy Association’s triennial chairman’s dinner held in London earlier this week, once more exhorted pharmacists to seize the opportunities offered by the community pharmacy contract.

As everyone trying to grab a slice of the PCT cake knows, this is so much easier said than done — something an Audit Commission report published last week confirms (p610). Unless money is ear-marked for pharmacy services, PCTs tend to overlook the contribution that pharmacists can make and turn to GPs for service development.

A great deal now seems to hang on the White Paper on the future development of pharmacy services, which was originally expected to be published in the autumn but is now not expected before the New Year.

Dawn Primarolo, health minister with responsibility for pharmacy, set out her stall at an All-Party Pharmacy Group meeting — also held earlier this week — by outlining the main challenges that the White Paper will address (p611). She hopes that pharmacists will be able to plan, develop and invest in new services with confidence. Let us hope that means that PCTs and commissioners will be forced to recognise the value of pharmacy and not continue to ignore it.

Nevertheless, some pharmacists have already broken through the glass ceiling and had their services recognised on the national scene. We would like to draw particular attention to the pharmacy needle exchange service developed by Leeds PCT, which recently won a Health Service Journal award, and the Darlington pharmacy team who won a BUPA Foundation communications award (p615).

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Don't underestimate impact of pandemic

It is reassuring when the Government is seen to have been doing its homework. Its plans for dealing with the impact of an influenza pandemic is a good example.

Last week saw the launch of a consultation into possible amendments to the medicines and other legislation in order to give powers to pharmacists throughout the UK that would be undreamt of under normal circumstances (p609 and p617).

For example, if a pandemic were to be declared, pharmacists might be able to dispense out-of-date or returned stock, in addition to the part they may play in the distribution of millions of doses of antivirals and antibiotics.

This is serious stuff and if these powers need to be invoked, we should not underestimate the scale of the crisis that will be gripping the country.

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