The NHS Confederation believes community pharmacy has a valuable role to play in supporting the shift within the NHS from secondary to primary care.

Community pharmacy is a key element of the Government's modernisation strategy for the NHS.

The paper, Pharmacy in England - Building on Strengths, Delivering the Future, outlines a number of polices to develop the role of the community pharmacy to deliver:

• a shift in emphasis from dispensing prescriptions to providing clinical services
• a wider range of services available through pharmacies
• greater use of the clinical skills of pharmacists.

White paper consultation - proposals for legislative change

The Department of Health has consulted on the future of pharmacy in England. Read the NHS Confederation response.

The principles underpinning our response are:

• the commissioning of pharmaceutical services should be part of strategic commissioning intentions
• patient safety is paramount
• all patients should be able to access the full range of pharmaceutical services (not just dispensing)
• changes to provision should continuously improve the quality of services
• changes need to be made to address the current inequities and anomalies in the arrangements for dispensing by doctors.

NHS Employers work

NHS Employers is leading on the following key policy areas and work is now underway on the first four:

• Professional relationships - leading a working group of pharmacy, medical and public representatives, to promote more effective professional relationships and support the development of pharmacy services
• Repeat dispensing - considering mechanisms to support further implementation of repeat dispensing
• Medicine Use Reviews (MURs) - working with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) to identify a way of prioritising MURs to meet health needs and reward health outcomes
• Pharmaceutical needs assessments (PNAs) - reviewing the structure of (and data requirements for) PNAs to ensure they are is an effective and robust commissioning tool. This work also includes developing a support programme for primary care trusts in this area
• Community pharmacy contract - leading negotiations on changes to the community pharmacy contractual framework with the PSNC.

For more information about this work including details of relevant publications and events, go to the NHS Employers website.

How we involve members

We hold specific seminars and meetings to inform our policy positions - look out for invitations in our weekly Interchange Alert bulletin as well as specific invitations. In addition, NHS Employers representatives at negotiating meetings are drawn from the service. We have regular meetings bringing together key stakeholders with NHS Confederation members.

Return to the key issues index.