| • Category M medicines
• Community pharmacy (3)
• Primary care contracts
• 100-hour pharmacies
• PCT commissioning
• Prescription charges
• Medicines use reviews
• Dispensing
• Minor ailment scheme
• Adverse drug reactions
• Asthma management (2)
• Non-practising status
• The Society
Letters to the Editor
|
PCT commissioning
PCTs fail to identify local health needs
From Mr M. James
The recent critical report from the National Audit Office on the new
GP contract should draw the detailed attention of pharmacists.
The report notes that when the new GP contract was introduced the Department
of Health devolved responsibility for commissioning additional enhanced services
to primary care trusts.
But the NAO found that some PCTs are commissioning
and paying for “enhanced” services that are provided as essential
services elsewhere.
The report states that “many PCTs lack the skills to identify and analyse
local health needs and to negotiate appropriate services with local providers”.
The DoH continues to devolve commissioning power to PCTs regardless of whether
a PCT has the skills to commission effectively.
The NAO found that 53 per cent of PCTs between 2004 and 2006 had not spent
to the minimum level set by the DoH for enhanced GP services.
Although the findings relate to the GP contract they should concern community
pharmacy. How can community pharmacy engage effectively with PCTs over local
commissioning if PCTs are confused about what they should be commissioning
and fail to meet commissioning targets?
The report noted that the new contract failed to meet one of its primary
objectives: under-provision in deprived areas.
We know doctors have a heavy workload. We also know that pharmacies open
longer than surgeries, are visited more often by patients and that many are
situated
in deprived areas. Add to that the fact that people trust pharmacists as
healthcare professionals.
So what could be done? GPs need to be incentivised, perhaps through the Quality
and Outcomes Framework, to engage with other healthcare professionals, such
as local pharmacists, to manage their workload better.
GPs should be rewarded,
not penalised, for streaming patients into appropriate care pathways. That
could be the GP and surgery or a pharmacy, as the recent Pharmaceutical
Services Negotiating Committee/ Proprietary Association of Great Britain
report on
minor ailments pointed out.
Pharmacists play an important role in directing patients to GPs when appropriate.
In future, GPs should be encouraged and rewarded for directing patients
to pharmacies when appropriate. That would benefit GPs, patients and community
pharmacy. Mark James
Group Managing Director,
AAH Pharmaceuticals
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal