The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7491 p234
1 March 2008

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

PDF 30K, Acrobat Reader

Cause for resentment

Keeping our letters pages transparent

Cause for resentment

Community pharmacists are fully aware that GPs in England have done well out of their contract (introduced in 2004) but they may be astonished to learn the extent of their gains, spelt out in a report from the National Audit Office published last week.

Here are some key findings from the report: for the first three years, the contract has cost the Department of Health £1.76bn more than it originally budgeted. Over the first two years, GP productivity fell by an average of 2.5 per cent per year. For the year 2005–06 the annual average pay of a GP partner was £113,614 (an increase of 58 per cent since 2002–03).

Although, not surprisingly, this has attracted more doctors into general practice, GP partners have lined their own pockets by taking more profit from their practices rather than rewarding any GPs they employ: the salary for employed GPs increased by only 3 per cent in the same period.

The report reveals that the proportion of consultations undertaken by practice nurses increased from 21 per cent to 34 per cent between 1995 and 2006, enabling GPs to spend more time with each patient, an average of around 12 minutes compared with eight minutes in 2002–03.

Significantly, there is no evidence that this shift has improved outcomes for patients. And primary care trusts come in for some criticism by not using the contract effectively to commission new local services and leaving some of the most deprived areas under-doctored.

It will be hard for pharmacists — once they have overcome their resentment — not to conclude that many GPs have become greedy and lazy, arguably at pharmacy’s expense. However, there are a few crumbs of comfort in the report. The NAO recommends that the department develop a strategy for yearly negotiations with a stronger emphasis on health outcomes. PCTs should provide more services based on local need and review the number and skills of staff employed with the aim of improving local commissioning.

Possibly GPs will find that they are no longer the most popular gang on the healthcare block and there is a chance for pharmacists to cash in — metaphorically and literally — on the need for GPs to prove that the health of patients is improving.

Back to Top

Keeping our letters pages transparent

The Journal Oversight Board has answered a query that The Journal posed: should we publish letters on clinical matters from non-practising pharmacists?

In our submission, we pointed out to the JOB that we did not think it our role to police the practising status of our correspondents and much to our relief, since we are a professional journal and most of the debates we cover are professional, the JOB does not think we should change our approach.

However, the JOB believes that it might be helpful for non-practising individuals to declare as much in their letters (p244). We shall in future be adding a sentence along those lines to the advice for correspondents published on the first letters page each week.

Back to Top