Polyclinic plan is misguided says Society in London review response
The Government’s hope that a network of super surgeries or polyclinics in London will improve access to healthcare is misguided, according to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
The Society is concerned that the proposal, which involves amalgamating
a range of services in one district onto a single site, could damage
patient access to a pharmacist at a time when the Government wants to
increase the role that the profession plays in the NHS.
In its comments
to the Healthcare for London review drawn up by health minister Lord
Darzi, the Society points out that 78 per cent of people travel less
than a mile to visit their pharmacy.
(PDF 40K)
Society Chief Executive and Registrar Jeremy Holmes warns: “The
network of community pharmacies and the public’s access to them
could be put at risk if the model of polyclinics proposed in the review
is introduced across the whole of London.”
But the Society does support the idea, put forward by the minister, that
community pharmacists might play a bigger role in helping patients manage
long-term conditions. The Society points out that this is already happening,
to varying degrees, under the pharmacy contract.
The suggestion, it says, is also reflected in the pharmacy White Paper, “Pharmacy
in England — building on strengths, delivering the future” published
earlier this month. That document proposes pharmacists take a wider role
in promoting health, preventing illness and providing a range of new
services to complement the work of GPs. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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