Pharmacy Voice is continuing to raise the issue of effective engagement with community pharmacy within the new commissioning arrangements as the Government’s NHS reform legislation reaches the House of Lords this week.
Pharmacy Voice chief executive, Rob Darracott, said:
“The Lords stages of the Health and Social Care Bill might be shaping up as a battleground for the current politics, but the Lords provides an opportunity for those with professional experience or expertise in a particular field to raise specific concerns, in the interests of ensuring that any final legislation is fit for purpose. Over the last few weeks, Pharmacy Voice has been speaking to a number of Peers who we know are interested in community pharmacy to explore how our specific concerns – achieving a fairer and more effective commissioning process, keeping bureaucracy to a minimum, ensuring the needs of the community are properly taken into account, and effectively engaging with the full range of local healthcare providers, particularly community pharmacy – might be raised in the debates to come.
“We have had some warm, but obtuse, words from Government Ministers during the Bill’s passage through the Commons on involving a wider range of healthcare professionals in decision-making. We want to hear that commitment expressed clearly in the Lords debate, and ideally enshrined in law. We are now working with those Members of the House of Lords as to the best way of ensuring that this issue is discussed during the Committee stages of the Bill towards the end of this month.”
Throughout the passage of the legislation, Pharmacy Voice has called for: