The Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) has today welcomed the positive and collaborative approach taken by all representative bodies within the sector in setting out how community pharmacy can deliver more for patients and the NHS in the future.
The CCA believes that the recent All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG) session on the proposed Community Pharmacy Care Plan service has demonstrated that there is much alignment between the key stakeholders within the sector on the way forward for community pharmacy. Following on from the recent APPG session the CCA has written to Sir Kevin Barron MP, chair of the APPG, to outline the organisation’s views on the key issues concerning how the sector can continue to evolve and provide new models of care for patients with long-term conditions. In the letter we have specifically outlined the evidence behind the Care Plan service concept, the need to modernise the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework, and the benefits to patients of being able to access high quality care from community pharmacy wherever they are.
A universal system, where the same care is available across the country will also help the NHS, by enabling the population as a whole to learn about where they can best access the right care for their needs. We propose that the Pharmacy Integration Fund should be used to support the continued development of the community pharmacy workforce to ensure that there is a strong pipeline to support the NHS’ current and future needs. The CCA has also requested that Sir Kevin and the APPG ask the Minister, Steve Brine MP, why we are not seeing words being turned into action.
The CCA was delighted to receive a prompt and supportive response to the letter from Sir Kevin and we are confident that he is committed to encouraging the Minister to taking the action needed.
Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive, has commented:
“There was a real sense of unanimity from the sector representatives at the APPG session, with agreement on the need for change, both from the perspective of how we can support the resource and capacity constrained NHS by utilising pharmacy’s workforce, premises and knowledge to its full potential, and importantly for patients, who could receive better and more holistic care in their community from their pharmacy team…. Given the policy drivers, the undeniable need and strong body of evidence, we need to be asking the Minister ‘why not?’”