The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7494 p325
22 March 2008

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LPS throws a lifeline for low dispensing-volume pharmacies

New guidance on local pharmaceutical services (LPS) contracts sets out a lifeline for those pharmacies in England that will lose the protected professional allowance on 1 April 2008. It contains a section on using LPS contracts to guarantee adequate pharmaceutical services in areas served by low-volume pharmacies.

Steve Lutener, head of regulation at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, said: “We would have liked to have seen this guidance published much earlier. The middle of March is very late if it is designed for low-volume pharmacies. Guidance on using LPS to replace the Essential Small Pharmacies Scheme came out six months before the end of the ESPS.”

Primary care trusts were told by the Department of Health a year ago that they should start to identify pharmacies that were to lose the protected professional allowance.