Some of the recommendations suggested include that representatives of the pharmacist workforce should be part of discussions with the NHS/government and employer organisations when service expansions or new services are being considered.
This week has also seen the news that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has entered consultation with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) regarding the 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 funding contractual framework. In its announcement, the DHSC said that the discussions “will set the future direction for community pharmacy as it plays a vital role in supporting delivery of the reforms set out in the government’s Plan for Change.”
Reinforced by the views of its members working on the frontline of community pharmacy in England, the PDA’s analysis is therefore timely. It makes the case for urgent reforms to the community pharmacy contractual framework. As the volume of prescriptions being dispensed from community pharmacies continues to rise, combined with the number of clinical services to be delivered, the case for ensuring that every pharmacy has two or more pharmacists to ensure patient safety grows stronger.
The PDA’s member survey highlighted several key considerations to inform any future clinical service development, such as:
- New services need to be introduced at the right time and the right pace.
- All pharmacists involved in any new or expanded services, must have protected time to undertake the necessary training and development beforehand to engage with the service fully from the start.
- To maintain access to services and remain focussed on patient safety, workforce capacity, in terms of staffing levels and skill mix, must be certain.
- Other parts of the healthcare system must have effective pathways and two-way referral mechanisms in place, supported by the appropriate IT infrastructures.
- All other healthcare professionals, supporting the pharmacy services must be informed in advance about their role(s) in the service and how to best utilise inter-professional collaboration to the benefit of patient care.
- Any pharmacy service must by supported by effective advertising and patient information campaigns, providing patients with accurate and clear information about the service and what to expect to help manage patient expectations and demands.
98% of respondents to the PDA’s survey believe that representatives of the pharmacist workforce should be part of discussions when commissioners consider service expansions or new services. This must be the starting point as the workforce is critical to the success of future community pharmacy service delivery, which the government has indicated is vital to supporting its NHS reform agenda.
Learn more
- Government opens discussions with Community Pharmacy England over 2025 to 2026 funding contract
- Pharmacy First Service – what have we learned in its first year?
- PDA survey highlights frontline pharmacists’ experiences of delivering the Pharmacy First Service
- Pharmacy First Service
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