The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7480 p611
1 December 2007

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Clear direction needed, says health minister

The Government’s White Paper on pharmacy must set out a clear direction of travel so that pharmacists can plan, develop and invest with confidence, said health minister Dawn Primarolo, at an All-Party Pharmacy Group meeting this week.

At the second of a series of meetings gauging reaction to the APPG’s report on the future of pharmacy published in June (PJ, 30 June 2007, p757), Ms Primarolo said: “The White Paper will set out how pharmaceutical services can, and should, change for the benefit of patients and consumers.

“I want it to be the touchstone of greater clinical involvement, delivery and health improvements, providing the blueprint for how the contractual framework should develop over the next few years.”

She described what she believes are some of the challenges that the White Paper should address. These are:

• The extent to which provision of advanced services can better be linked into primary care trusts’ assessment of pharmaceutical needs locally

• How to make sure that the quality of services continually improves, for example, by harmonising accreditation requirements

• Whether there could be development of a funding floor and, if so, how it would work

• Whether the tiers of the contract are the right ones for the future

Referring to the APPG’s suggestion that new advanced pharmaceutical services need to be developed, Ms Primarolo said: “My view is that we have come a long way since April 2005 and I want to see the growth develop further. But we need to reflect on whether we should speed up the pace of change and, if so, how and what are the right levers.”

She spoke of the inherent tension between the need for pharmacies to have service security and the need for the NHS to ensure it is getting the best possible value for money, recognising that pharmacies may not necessarily be the only provider.

Ms Primarolo identified the biggest challenge for the White Paper as it being able to provide a mechanism for openly discussing fundamental issues that need to be addressed to improve access.

“And that means unpacking perceived barriers and finding solutions to those perceived barriers,” she said.