The CCA has called for stronger recognition, clearer planning and bolder innovation in how community pharmacy services are funded and regulated, in its response to the NHS long term plan discussion document.
The NHS in England has been engaging with stakeholders on its priorities for the next decade and is seeking feedback on its long term plan discussion document by this Sunday (30 September 2018).
The response calls on the NHS to harness the full potential of community pharmacy’s important role within an integrated health and care system in England. It goes on to highlight that an enabling, long-term and future-proof funding model would best equip the sector to make a vital contribution to population health outcomes for a new generation.
Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of the CCA, said: “Community pharmacy funding and governance must be both cost-effective for the NHS and contractors to deliver.
“Otherwise patients and the public will have fewer services and we will have missed an opportunity to create new ones that best meet people’s current and future health and wellbeing needs”.
The CCA response also raises a range of themes, including:
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- achieving fuller digital interoperability between community pharmacy and other services
- commissioning a national community pharmacy-led Care Plan Service, and
- enhancing and extending community pharmacy-based medicines optimisation activity.
The long term plan for the NHS is expected to be developed in time for the 2018 Autumn Budget, which was announced earlier this week as taking place on 29 October.
The CCA has been working closely with its members to develop a response and is engaging directly with NHS England and long term plan workstream leads to emphasise that community pharmacy must be a visible part of the plan for the future.
The individual responses from the five pharmacy representative organisations – AIM, CCA, NPA, PSNC and RPS – have been shared with the other organisations, and we will continue to work together to collectively promote pharmacy.
The CCA’s consultation response is available here.