(Dotpharmacy.com 20/4/06)

Primary care tsar urges pharmacy to be entrepreneurial

Independent contractors must seize the initiative in setting up healthcare services to survive NHS reforms, England ’s primary care tsar said at the Avicenna conference in Goa this week.

An entrepreneurial approach would be key to meeting the challenges of the government’s white paper on community healthcare, David Colin-Thomé, national director for primary care in England , told delegates.

“If you think your future is limited then it will be. There is a huge opportunity to shape healthcare and make a difference. My plea to you is, are you up to the challenge?” he said.

The profession must engage doctors to succeed under practice based commissioning, he advised. “If you can help GPs in delivering care then you have got to be in there telling them. The new contract offers a big chance to set up community care such as the management of long-term diseases. Pharmacies attract many more patients than GP surgeries,” he said.

(Comment:  Dr Colin-Thome seems to be inciting chemists to take work from his colleagues.  Not a good idea as the screws are being tightened on GP income)

Community pharmacists given access to prescribing money

Community pharmacists will be eligible for strategic health authority funding to become independent prescribers, the Department of Health has said.

In a 70-page guide to implementing non-medical prescribing in England , the DH says central funding is being made available through SHAs to meet training costs. It adds that non-NHS nurses and pharmacists who provide the majority of their clinical services to NHS patients may access this money and should be considered within SHA plans.

Pharmacists looking to become prescribers must have at least two years’ post-registration experience, and be competent in the area in which they will be working in post-training. Employers must ensure there is a local need, and that individuals will be given the opportunity to prescribe once qualified.

(Comment: Not a word here about who takes the responsibility.  One has to hope that the chemist will be if a patient comes to harm because the GP does not know what actions the half-trained chemist has taken.  Far better they restrained themselves to what they are properly trained in - the dispensing of medicines.   As the old NHS maxim went: "each to their own area of special training")

Barriers to community pharmacist prescribing

Pharmacists working in primary care settings find it more difficult to establish themselves as supplementary prescribers than their secondary care colleagues, a survey has shown.

Community pharmacists are less likely to be considered for prescribing training than their colleagues working for PCTs or in GP surgeries, revealed the survey. Reasons included a lack of access to patient records, problems obtaining PCT funding, and poor GP-pharmacist relationships.

(Comment: Far less hazardous for patients if the chemist stopped blundering about in areas for which he has virtually no training and where he can create chaos and death with the greatest of ease).

Scotland hints at regulating technicians

Scotland has indicated that legislation regulating pharmacy technicians is being drafted.

In response to concerns raised by the Association of Pharmacy Technicians at its conference, a Scottish Executive Health Department spokesman said the SEHD was “actively considering” legislation for the regulation of pharmacy support staff in Scotland.

“We will also continue to work with UK counterparts to ensure consistency for professional groups whose work takes them across geographical boundaries,” the spokesman added.