PCTs to hold balance of power in community pharmacy
pharmafile | October 31, 2003 | News story | |Â Â Â
Pharmacy leaders have welcomed plans to protect local pharmacies from greater competition, but say crucial detail must now be agreed to ensure patient services do not suffer.
A crucial component of the plans will see PCTs take on greater powers to manage provision of pharmacy services while considering consumer choice and patient need.
A report in January by the Office of Fair Trading recommended a radical shake-up of the market by lifting restrictions on the opening of new pharmacies, but strong opposition from pharmacy and PCT leaders has prompted the Government to produce a compromise.
The proposed reforms will include:
– A new obligation for PCTs to consider the impact on consumer choice when considering applications for services;
– Boosting patient choice through access to internet and mail-order services, (which the Government says many patients prefer)
– Making it easier for pharmacies to open in large shopping outlets including supermarkets but with safeguards to prevent adverse effects on local community services, with a duty to provide a full range of services 'appropriate to local need'.
Announcing the measures, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said pharmacists play a vital community role, and should not be seen simply as shopkeepers.
"We do not believe that simple de-regulation is the best way to achieve our aims. The OFT made a strong case that the current control of entry rules impede competition and reduce benefits for consumers", she said.
"But given the current shortage of pharmacists, and the Government's desire to see pharmacies given a new and strong role in the modern NHS, the Government does not believe that this is the time to move to a fully de-regulated system".
On one hand, the plans to make it easier for pharmacies to open in shopping developments of over 15,000 square metres gross floor space could signal a huge increase in pharmacies located in supermarkets. But PCTs will have powers to 'prevent adverse effects on local community provision' potentially blocking supermarket applications to open pharmacy branches.
Legislation will be introduced from April next year allowing PCTs to apply a revised version of the current 'necessary or desirable test' to consider new pharmacy openings or extensions of existing services.
The lack of clarity over how these competing forces will balance out is the main source of continuing anxiety from pharmacy leaders, who want practical details to ensure protection for local pharmacists.
Sue Sharpe, Chief Executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee said that 'substantial exemptions' in the plans could amount to 'de-regulation by the back door'.
"These proposals lack detail but they could result in many of the existing safeguards being removed – threatening precisely those neighbourhood pharmacies that patients value so much and that we are anxious to protect for the benefit of local communities and the NHS".
John D'Arcy, Chief Executive of the National Pharmaceutical Association agreed that the 'devil will be in the detail' but said the outright rejection of the OFT recommendations by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was a lead England should follow.
An advisory group will be set up in the coming weeks to consider how best to modernise the system and how to implement the changes.
John Evans, Asda's superintendent pharmacist said: "Should these proposals be accepted and entry controls reformed, we expect a rapid expansion of pharmacies in the next five years – in stark contrast to the last 16 years of stagnation".
The reforms were released on the same day as a Department of Health framework for a new community pharmacy contract, which promise to supersede recent reforms and could revolutionise pharmacy along similar lines to the new GP contract.
