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June Wednesday 21 June 2006 All-Party
Pharmacy Group AGM and summer reception - 21 June 2006 In her speech the Secretary of State spoke of how in the consultation exercise, Your Health, Your Care Your Say, the public clearly stated how much they valued pharmacists. She saw pharmacy as highly responsive to patients' needs. She welcomed the new contract for community pharmacy services and highlighted Medicine Use Reviews as a strong example of how pharmacists' expertise can improve healthcare for patients and deliver better outcomes. She cited pharmacists' role in public health and in spotting drug interactions as vitally important. She recognised the importance of stability within community pharmacy, in light of the Control of Entry review, and she pledged that IT improvements would flow via the National Programme for IT. She welcomed the APPG's Inquiry into the Future of Pharmacy and looked forward to the contribution it would make to policy development.
March Tuesday 7 March 2006 Guest speaker Dr David Colin-Thome, National Clinical Director for Primary Care, Department of Health, outlined his views and answered questions in a debate on the Department of Health's White Paper, "Our health, our care, our say".
A report of the meeting can be read here; Report of APPG meeting 0703061
January Monday 23 January 2006 A special meeting was held with the Minister for Health, Rt Hon Jane Kennedy MP. The Minister and officials from the Department of Health answered questions on a range of topics including the new community pharmacy contractual framework and developments in pharmacy services.
Wednesday 9 August 2006 First evidence session held for All-Party Pharmacy Group's Future of Pharmacy Inquiry. The All-Party Pharmacy group today held the first evidence session for its Future of Pharmacy Inquiry. In the first of a series of public meetings representatives from Which? and Asthma UK gave detailed evidence about the public perception of pharmacies, controls of entry and the role of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Over coming months a range of witnesses will provide evidence on issues which impact the pharmacy industry and its key stakeholders. The next evidence session will be held after the Parliamentary summer recess. To read the news release on the Inquiry, please click here Pharmacy
Inquiry First Evidence Session news release Wednesday 21 June 2006 The All-Party Pharmacy Group announces Inquiry into the Future of Pharmacy. The All-Party Pharmacy Group today announced the launch of a major Inquiry into the Future of Pharmacy. It will be broad ranging, focussing on pharmacy services in primary and secondary care. The Inquiry will include an extensive consultation process and public evidence gathering meetings with invited witnesses. The Inquiry will culminate in a report with recommendations for the profession, policy makers and other stakeholders. The work of the Inquiry will begin in June, and the first public meetings will be announced as soon as possible. Information will be posted here. To read the news release on the Inquiry, please click here Letter to Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP, Secretary of State, Department of Health from Dr Howard Stoate and the All-Party Pharmacy Group - dated 30 November 2005 Dear Pat I am writing to you to set out the views of the All-Party Pharmacy Group on matters relating to your forthcoming white paper on primary care and social care. Our focus is on the role that community pharmacists can play in providing choice by delivering a broader services and improving access to primary care. I hope you will find our views helpful as you and your officials prepare the white paper for publication. As ever, I would be happy to meet with you or with others at the Department to discuss these matters in more detail. Evidence gatheringThe All-Party Pharmacy Group has been keen to hear the views of relevant stakeholders. In October we held a meeting attended by patient groups, PCTs, pharmacists, and the medical and nursing professions. The meeting was addressed by Dr Fiona Adshead, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, and Dr Michael Dixon of the NHS Alliance. In addition, we have received the report of the Citizens' Summit and the other consultative events organised by the Department, and we have collected information about initiatives and developments already taking place in community pharmacy. Members of the Group are also engaged in visiting community pharmacies to speak to patients and users of pharmacy services, as well as to pharmacists and their staff. Key findings • Access to services is a high priority for the publicOne of the strong messages from your public consultation exercise has been that the public wish to see improved access to primary care services. As service users, the public want to know that the services they need are available when they need them in locations that are convenient, and that these services are provided by trusted, local community providers. Much of the feedback from the consultation exercise highlights community pharmacy as trusted and highly accessible. It has long been our Group's view that community pharmacies are in fact the most accessible provider of NHS services. Our recommendationAs you consider the introduction of service developments, we recommend that you have a special regard for the role that pharmacies can play. Their accessibility and trusted status, combined with the positive effect of the new contractual framework within which they are now operating, enables you to use them as a principal means of delivering improvements in primary care.
We see access to high quality services at the time of need as being an overwhelming priority. Providing the public with choices of services and provider is important as a means of improving access. However, people need good quality information so that they can make informed choices. They need to know about – their condition the role of different professionals and providers the role of self-care how to exercise choice.
Choice is a positive factor in the provision of NHS primary care services, provided it is carefully balanced with the need to ensure ready access to services. Providing an elderly person with a long-term condition the choice of using a new service provider located a significant distance from the person's home is not a choice at all. Ensuring that the patient is aware they can access expert advice, information and treatment from their local pharmacy, as well as their GP does present a meaningful choice. Our recommendationCommunity pharmacies are playing an increasing part in health education and promotion as part of the new contractual framework. Their role in information and advice, including signposting, should be recognised in the white paper as a means of developing and promoting choice.
Primary care providers need to play a greater role in promoting and sustaining good health. At present the emphasis remains heavily skewed towards treating illness. While it is of course essential that both roles remain in future, a better balance needs to be struck between them. This will enable the NHS to manage demand more effectively, make most efficient use of resources, and ensure better outcomes for patients and the public. Our recommendationCommunity pharmacy has a track record of promoting self-care, advising on healthy living, and identifying and treating minor ailments (thus in some cases preventing them from escalating). The new contractual framework is designed to harness this capability more effectively, and the white paper should recognise that the role of promoting and sustaining good health sits naturally with community pharmacies.
Your public consultation exercise and our own evidence gathering have emphasised a number of service developments of high priority. In community pharmacy, many of these are already in progress, and in our view the white paper should add support to initiatives already under way. Key services include -
Our recommendationIn all these areas there is a valuable role for community pharmacists to play. Many aspects are factored into the new contractual framework, and we believe the white paper should highlight the ability of pharmacies to deliver such services under the new contract, and encourage others – other health professions, PCTs and local commissioners – to make full use of community pharmacy.
The development of existing and new services requires a stable NHS environment and clarity as to decision making and responsibility. Community pharmacies and other service providers need to know that the investment they are required to make is for the long-term and that primary care funding is put in place on this basis. The commitment of NHS funding needs to reflect the commitment of pharmacy investment if services are to be successfully developed and rolled out. PCTs and local commissioners need to be focused and engaged. In the past, there has been difficulty getting local primary care managers to focus on how community pharmacy can help deliver improvements for patients. Much work has gone into addressing this problem and we have now reached a point where real progress has been made. This is largely due to pharmacy representation on PECs. Now, we have concerns that this progress will be disrupted by reorganisational issues at a time when your Department - and the public - wants to see service developments and improvements. We recognise that steps have been taken recently to reduce the level of disruption caused by reorganisational initiatives, but this remains a concern. Our recommendationWhile the new contractual framework is having a positive effect in this regard, the white paper presents a further opportunity to encourage PCTs and commissioners to focus on the ability of community pharmacy to meet local needs, and to continue (in some cases, begin) the process of engaging with Local Pharmaceutical Committees to plan service developments.
From our evidence gathering it is clear that many users of NHS primary care services want control over access to their health records. They are likely to recognise that if they want their pharmacy to provide new and extended services, their pharmacists will need access to their health record. We believe that many of the services that community pharmacy can provide in future are dependent on being connected into the NHS IT network. Access by community pharmacists to the national care record system is essential if services such as medicines use review and independent prescribing are to operate to optimum success. Specifically, pharmacies and GP practices must have IT connectivity. Failure to achieve IT connectivity will hamper service improvements. Our recommendationWe hope to see recognition in the white paper of the importance of this matter. Service developments will not take place as quickly as we all wish unless connectivity between pharmacies and GP practices is achieved. We are not aware of any technical barriers to resolving this. If you or your officials have any questions about the matters I have raised or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best wishes Yours sincerely
Dr Howard Stoate MP Chair
ALL-PARTY
GROUP STATEMENT ON NEGOTIATIONS OVER THE NEW PHARMACY CONTRACT 17 July 2004
MPs
CALL FOR PHARMACISTS’ FRONTLINE ROLE
APPG
TO HOLD SPECIAL INQUIRY INTO
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 20 April 2004 PHARMACY FOR FELLAS Winterton urges men to use their pharmacies Men were yesterday urged to make the most of pharmacists who can provide them with easy access to valuable health advice by Health Minister Rosie Winterton. Speaking at a joint meeting of the All Party Pharmacy Group and Men's Health Forum Rosie Winterton said: "Research shows that men can be reluctant health service users who make poor use of preventative services and can tend to avoid going to see the doctor unless they are in significant pain or an illness has become too serious to ignore. "Men are significantly more likely to die than women from a number of causes, including suicides, drug-related poisonings, lung cancer and coronary heart disease. They can expect to spend 15 years of their lives suffering from a serious or chronic illness. "The challenge for all of us is to reach these people, such as the 50 year old male smoker who does not routinely access health services but wants to give up smoking. Pharmacies have an advantage - people visit them when they are well, not just when they are sick. "Pharmacists' roles are changing and they are now providing smoking cessation courses; measuring blood pressure and body mass index, to actively support public health campaigns on smoking, diet, physical activity and reducing obesity. And it is through advice and provision of these services that pharmacists can help build on the very good news of a 10 per cent fall in premature deaths from cancer since 1995/1997, and a 23 per cent reduction in heart-related deaths between then and 2000/2002. "The government made clear in A Vision for Pharmacy in the new NHS published last year its intention to ensure an NHS where people have the greatest choice about the time and place they can seek advice and help. And this should apply to everyone, including men." Notes to Editors 1. The strategy for developing NHS Pharmacy services is set out in A Vision for Pharmacy in the new NHS, published on 17 July 2003. 2. The Men's
Health Forum can be contacted on tel: 020 7388 4449 and at www.menshealthforum.org.uk.
The Men's Health Forum is in partnership with the DPP: Developing
Patient Partnerships on a new campaign 'Pop down your local' to
inform men about the services available from pharmacies and encourage
more men to use the pharmacy for health advice and treatments. The
campaign - 'Pop down your local' - launching on April 29 has been
developed in partnership with a number of organisations including
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society 3. The All Party Pharmacy Group can be contacted via the website www.appg.org.uk which was also launched at the event.
APPG LAUNCHES WEBSITE Embargo: 5pm, 19 April 2004 The All-Party Pharmacy Group today launched its own dedicated website at www.appg.org.uk . Speaking at the launch in the House of Commons on 19 April 2004, Dr Howard Stoate MP chair of the APPG, said: “This is another indication of the momentum and profile that our Group is achieving. We are leading the way among all-party groups – our membership is amongst the largest, we have one of the busiest work schedules, we continue to influence government policy, and we have now become one of the very few parliamentary groups to have its own dedicated website. The site will grow over time, but already it contains information about who we are and what we do. You will find details of past and future meetings, and you can download all the reports and policy recommendations we have sent to Ministers since we were established. I hope all those interested in our work will visit the site and give us their feedback and views. This is an important time for pharmacy. The new national contract is being negotiated and the changes to control of entry have yet to be finalised, to name just two of the major issues. Our website provides another means for people to see what we think about these issues and what action we are seeking from Ministers.” For further information:Simon Whale – 020 7618 9100 or simonwhale@luther.co.uk
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