Dispensing doctors vow to fight White Paper proposals
Dispensing doctors in England are preparing to fight proposals set out in the pharmacy White
Paper.
In a statement on the Dispensing
Doctors’ Association website,
chairman Richard West says: “There are some good things in the
White Paper that we would like to work on and develop. However, it is
evident that if the proposals were implemented in full, dispensing by
doctors would virtually cease in England. We cannot accept this and shall
fight against it with every means at our disposal.”
One of the DDA’s priorities will be, he says, to make MPs aware
of the “devastating effect” proposals in the White Paper
will have on the rural population and the services dispensing doctors
will be able to provide.
The DDA has also challenged the Department of Health’s statistics
on the number of dispensing doctors and patients who use dispensing services
in England. The DDA has obtained data from the NHS Business Services
Authority Prescription Pricing Division using the Freedom of Information
Act. According to these figures, there are 5,553 doctors working in 1,135
dispensing practices, with 3,510,895 patients.
The White Paper states
that there are 4,300 dispensing doctors. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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