General News

PSNC submits response to Pharmacy White Paper consultation

PSNC has today submitted its formal response to the Department of Health consultation - Building on strengths - delivering the future: proposals for legislative reform.

Key points in the response include:

PSNC supports replacing Control of Entry with a test based upon a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment subject to provisos to ensure they are robust and fair.
Sanctions to deal with inadequate performance by pharmacy contractors must be accompanied by measures to support improvement and reward high quality. Objective standards should be set out in Regulations to ensure consistency.
PSNC recognises that the introduction of supplementary lists parallels the processes applying to other NHS healthcare professionals, but wishes to reduce the burden of duplication.
PSNC is pleased to see that the Department of Health intends to review the 100 hour exemption. The PNA based test, which will remove the need for the exemptions, should be introduced as soon as possible. Until then, the 100 hour pharmacy applications should be granted only where the applicant satisfies the PCT that there is justification to grant the application.
The campaign by dispensing doctors against proposals to change arrangements for dispensing in rural areas has overshadowed important proposals for development of pharmacy services. PSNC does not support revision of the market entry rules for dispensing doctors at this time, and believes that the priority should be to develop the pharmacy service that is available to all members of the public, and to integrate pharmacy services fully into primary care. PSNC strongly opposes the sale of OTC medicines by dispensing doctors, since this will lead to conflicts of interest as well as confusing patients and members of the public.

The full response can be downloaded by clicking here.

Posted 19 November 2008

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