Skip Navigation
PSNC Home Page
Advanced Search
.

Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee

Community Pharmacy Question Time

In a unique event on the 30th November, PSNC brought together spokespeople from all three major parties to debate pharmacy issues.

PSNC’s Chairman Chris Hodges chaired a distinguished panel made up of Minister for Health Services Mike O’Brien MP, Conservative Shadow Health Minister Mark Simmonds MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb MP and PSNC Chief Executive Sue Sharpe.

The debate recognised community pharmacy’s unique accessibility, and its place at the heart of the communities where people live and work. Unanimous support was expressed for an expansion in pharmacy services, with particular focus on improving public health and well-being.

The panel faced questions from an audience of well over a hundred, comprised of community pharmacists, LPC and PCT representatives, prominent think-tanks, major health stakeholders, and professional and representative bodies.

Health Services Minister Mike O’Brien called for a greater involvement of pharmacy in care pathways, with rewards focussed on outcomes rather than processes. Mark Simmonds was keen to develop a more personalised service for patients; Norman Lamb supported better integration of care and more emphasis on health and well-being.

PSNC’s Sue Sharpe emphasised pharmacists’ unique capacity to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities they serve. She noted how the accessible, tailored service that community pharmacies provide make them an invaluable resource in developing a more personalised health service, but stressed that this development must involve better local inter-professional communications.

Community Pharmacy Question Time Event Questions

The questions can be found below:

  1. Dhiren Bhatt: How does each of the panellists see pharmacies: as retail shops or as part of the NHS primary care system? Should this change, and if so how?
  2. Robbie Turner: Are patients’ needs and NHS efficiencies best served by allowing each PCT to devise its own way of delivering a service that’s needed across the country, like Chlamydia Screening? Does the panel agree that accrediting suitably capable community pharmacists to provide such services across PCT boundaries would speed up the roll-out of much-needed public health services in pharmacies?
  3. Garry Myers: If your party is successful at the election, will Practice Based Commissioning have a future under your control? If so, what changes do you believe should be introduced into local commissioning structures (including PBC clusters) in order to promote greater commissioning of services from community pharmacy?
  4. Mark Burdon: My question is about control of entry. Simple question: a planned service or a free market? Which is best?
  5. Tricia Kennerley: Prevention and public health are still the Cinderella health services, but they present massive opportunities for improving health. How would you incentivise PCTs to commission pharmacy to provide wellbeing services? 
     
  6. Final question (Each panellist given 30 seconds each):

    Ian Hunter: If there was one thing you could do to help drive NHS community pharmacy forward, what would it be?

  

Audio File

To download the complete audio file of the questions and MP responses please click the link below.

Question Time Event Audio (MP3 Format)