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Medicines Management
Issue no 3, p1-4
May/June 2002

PCTs start to set their criteria for LPS pilots

The National Pharmaceutical Association launched a guide to LPS pilots in May this year, designed to help pharmacists, PCTs and patients understand the proposals. As well as explaining the guidance notes, the document provides help to those wishing to bid to run an LPS pilot, as well as advice on how to find funding.

Copies of the guide, available free to those interested in providing LPS, are available from the NPA. Telephone 01727 858687 ext 217 or e-mail lps.help@npa.co.uk

Primary care trusts have begun to set out their ideas for the types of services that community pharmacists might provide under local pharmaceutical services pilots, ranging from support for community services, to using pharmacies to increase access to services by patients from ethnic minorities.

Stephen Deitch, senior pharmaceutical adviser at Hillingdon PCT, said that the PCT was interested in joining the second wave, and was formulating ideas for suitable schemes. But he warned PCTs to make sure they communicated their ideas on LPS as early as possible.

"It is incumbent on PCTs to make sure that they get the message out to potential bidders about the sorts of schemes that would fit in with their development plans," he said. He added that Hillingdon had put forward three ideas that it would like to see proposals cover, one of which would involve pharmacy support for its community paediatrics and mental health services.

Mr Deitch added: "The second idea is pure medicines management and involves supporting particular groups of patients and providing help with their medicines." This would cover patients with diabetes, coronary heart disease and older patients.

"We will be trying to communicate those ideas to community pharmacists in the next few months," he said.

Meanwhile Central Derby PCT has just held a meeting with local community pharmacists to spark interest in the pilots. Prescribing adviser Larraine Tuplin said: "We have had some interest in LPS pilots, but we're still trying to work out how we can fund it and what sort of services it would be realistic to provide."

She added that the PCT would like to develop LPS pilots aimed at increasing access to services among ethnic minorities. "We have quite a large ethnic minority population, and we wondered if community pharmacy might be a way to encourage people to access services, because we know that they visit the pharmacist, and in some cases the pharmacist speaks their language."

She added that the PCT had received written support from the local pharmaceutical committee broadly backing the idea of establishing LPS pilots.

However, Ms Tuplin said that the short timescale proposed by the Government coupled with continuing shortages of funds in this financial year meant that LPS pilots might prove to be one service development too many.

Sharon Morrow, prescribing adviser for Barking and Dagenham PCT, which is running a medicines management scheme for older people, said that her PCT was likely to continue its medicines management project rather than seek bids for LPS pilots in the short term.

"There is a paper going to the June board meeting looking at whether or not we could support first wave LPS pilots, but at this stage I don't know if the PCT would be in a position to do so because of the resources it would need," she said.