Pharmacy Voice: DH must ‘exercise caution’ in EPS 2 roll-out

PSNC optimistic about future of NMS despite delay in evaluation

2013-05-21T16:12:23Z

Don't you just love it when PSNC come up with phrases like "the government had put up £20 million to extend the NMS for six months." How much of the original £110 million is left over that pharmacy contractors have still not received.

Now I understand the meaning of "spin".

Boots profits rise masks underlying issues, analyst warns

2013-05-16T12:19:46Z

If you can't make a profit being one of the monopoly triumvirate suppliers of DTP or restricted wholesaler medicines in the UK, you really would have to shut up shop!

Two pharmacy companies go into administration

2013-05-09T16:58:24Z

Would many other contractors weep if 90% of 100-hour pharmacies closed as a result of cat m and fee reductions. I think not.

This Government wants to get rid of at least 1000 pharmacies. Getting rid of most of the "exemptions" granted during the previous administration would take care of that.

2+2 sometimes does = 4

APBI: government must resolve national variation in medicines access

2013-01-14T17:37:26Z

Will members of ABPI please guarantee 100% that pharmacy contractors can actually obtain all drugs before asking anybody to act "quickly and decisively" on any matter whotsoever. I'm afraid Mr Whitehead your members have a bit more to do with making sure all medicines are available before lecturing anybody anywhere on anything!
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Johnson & Johnson signs first reduced wholesaler deal for OTC

2013-01-10T13:19:22Z

The usual wholesalers selected again. They have done a grand job making sure prescription medicines are 100% available to all pharmacy contractors haven't they - must be why J&J selected them! Looking forward to the end of regional wholesaling within 3 years when the likes of GSK Consumer, RB and the rest do exactly the same as J&J.

Those of us living in the real world know the sole reason for these restricted wholesaler arrangments is to cut the distribution costs for the manufacturer - nothing else matters no matter how much they try to make a case for reducing complexity, increasing efficiency or ensuring optimal distribution - this last one is a complete joke when you see how many shortages there have been for products from manufacturers going down this route. Come on J&J, are you seriously trying to suggest that point is valid!
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C+D readers call for ‘drastic action’ on stock shortages

2013-01-09T17:25:40Z

If your pharmacy is not part of the large multi national pharmacy chain I think you are refering to, try ordering single packs of Epipen 300mcg. You will be very fortunate to obtain any unless you kick up a complete storm after your first order is rejected as manufacturer unable to supply!

PSNC chief Sue Sharpe defends interim funding package

2012-09-19T13:33:18Z

Sorry Sue, your "explanation" does not wash. Why did you not negotiate that the £500M purchase profit figure would increase year-on-year at the start of the new contract? That one act should result in you having a look-in-the-mirror-moment at least, because didn't big pharma just love how that worked to their advantage by going down the route of DTP / restricted wholesaler / quotas and the rest, including slashing the discount available from those parasitic companies, once obviously cleverer brains than yours worked out how to take full advantage. If I'm wrong and you and your "negoitiating" team had foreseen what might happen - shame on you and them for not pointing out to contractors what might happen if they voted to accept the terms of the new contract. If not, then I rest my case and you should go now.

As for the COSI, total red herring. If DH agreed with the findings, then there would have been no need for an interim deal. They obviously did not like what was found and will try to wriggle out of any promises expected by PSNC. When will the PSNC ever learn? Probably not in my lifetime.

PSNC announces contractor funding for 2012-13

2012-09-17T16:40:56Z

Unfortunately with the averaging system that PSNC want to cling to when negotiating they could not care less whether you dispense some items at a loss - they will argue with you that the average contractor will also dispense items at a considerable gain and thus everything is balanced.

In the real world that PSNC and the DH do not inhabit, we all know that is not good news for the pharmacies that fall below the average.

Supermassive black hole

2012-09-17T12:23:21Z

So my comment to another C&D article where I mention that primary care will run out of money by January 2014 is now looking a bit optimistic!
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PSNC announces contractor funding for 2012-13

2012-09-13T17:01:43Z

Check this out:

http://www.psnc.org.uk/pages/pharmabase_-_levy_per_contractor_by_lpc.html

Its a link to how much each contractor paid in hypothecated levies whether they used Pharmabase or not. Makes your eyes water when you compare the highest to the lowest. All based on volume of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hypocritical or what?

Will members of the PSNC please let all contractors know how many of them or the pharmacies they represent actually make use of Pharmabase on a regular basis.

Pigs will fly before we get that information, I bet

PSNC announces contractor funding for 2012-13

2012-09-13T16:39:52Z

If any trade union leader negotiated effectively a pay cut every year for the past 7 years they would have been sacked a long time ago.

The mistake PSNC made was agreeing to the £500M purchase profit figure and not negotiating an agreed increase in that amount every year at the time.

The mantra that PSNC keep spouting about the DH wanting to get away from volume payments is not true - NMS thresholds anyone?

The DH just want to have their cake and eat it and the PSNC keep falling for it year on year. Pathetic!

A new face could be just what we need

2012-09-12T17:16:50Z

Having been to a short presentation from a GP with regards to CCG commissioning I forecast primary care will run short of money by January 2014.

Of course the government (i.e. the taxpayer) will bail CCGs out that year. The NHS reorganisation cannot be seen to have failed!

No expansion on those comments needed.

Hemant Patel: community pharmacy should set out vision for national emergen

2012-08-13T13:48:40Z

What's the point in even discussing this as things stand technologically now. Once EPS R2 is up and running around the country, and pharmacies eventually get access to SCR, then you can look at a national emergency supply scheme. Then those few patients that frequently use emergency supply instead of FP10s around numerous pharmacies would be tracked properly and their GP could get more of a grip on the abuse of the system - if they can be bothered.

Genuine emergencies could be dealt with on a more clinical footing in the pharmacy if we get access to SCR.

I think that genuine emergencies should be treated like an FP10 with script payment or not as part of any scheme. Should be much easier to administer with an electronic solution enabling us to get the information back to the PPD, then onto the GP ePACT data.

If you don't want to wait for electronic solutions to be in place, you could look at the scheme running in Scotland as a good starting point. Either introduce that with all its extra paperwork and still relying on patient's using one pharmacy only, or wait for an electronic solution where it won't matter where the patient uses for the emergency supply.
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Study accuses manufacturers of chasing profits not clinical benefits

2012-08-10T12:17:27Z

If you are contributing to a pension fund you will be holding shares indirectly in lots of pharma companies.

Do you truly think, hand on heart, Orlistat has any therapuetic value?

‘Frustrating’ NHS 111 service fails to acknowledge pharmacy

2012-08-10T05:54:14Z

The article states no-one in the Croydon area was directed to pharmacies or dentists. Thus Mr McCoig's frustration.

Study accuses manufacturers of chasing profits not clinical benefits

2012-08-09T14:48:56Z

How much did it cost AZ to develop Nexium which was ready when the patent for Omeprazole ran out. Other examples come to mind, Citalopram - Escitalopram; Cetirizine - Levocetirizine; Loratidine - Desloratidine; Terfenadine - Fexofenadine. Need I go on.

Call me cynical, but other than trying to squeeze as much money out of health services around the world with inferior products (the jury is still out on whether Nexium is superior to Losec), why else would the manufacturers wait until patent life expiry before launching their superior products (in terms of benefits outcomes and reduced side-effect profiles) when some of them could probably have been brought to market sooner.
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Pharmacist suspended for 12 months after ‘deceptive’ council housing claim

2012-08-07T14:32:46Z

Just because someone might be good at their day-job does not excuse their criminal activities!

I'm quite sure Ms Muffazil knew exactly what she was getting in to. I'm sure she only became contrite and remorseful when she realised she could not lie her way out of her predicament - a bit like all criminals trying to look for mercy when they change their plea at the last minute.

As for the regulator saying she had not caused any harm to patients, she kept another family from accessing a council house. Harmful enough in my book.

Pharmacy Voice: DH must ‘exercise caution’ in EPS 2 roll-out

2012-08-06T10:33:14Z

Collect/notify - do this in batches through the day from tokens that were attached to the bags of medicines. Don't forget you will have time to do this from time saved normally spent counting and sorting FP10s.

Also in the "Interim report of the findings from the evaluation in early implementer sites" mentioned by C&D recently, it states there could be more paper generated with R2 than there is now with FP10s.

Unless you are dispensing around 2,000 items a month you will not be in a position to receive and dispense an R2 script solely from information on a screen. It is easier to print a token every time whilst Nomination is the only game in town.

Another solution would be to use suitably encrypted drop-on-the-floor-friendly hand held devices to dispense from linked back to your server. There would be more to such a system and how it could be used than I've indicated, but that's the way the future might lie.

Pharmacy Voice: DH must ‘exercise caution’ in EPS 2 roll-out

2012-08-06T10:19:07Z

Don't think you can blame ETP for pharmacies not sending scripts back to the spine. They should follow their SOPs. I assume they had one in place.

Multiple entries for a GP are a problem which Cegedim seem unable to rectify, blaming everyone else. They will give you reasons for it occuring but will not actually fix things or escalate the issue so someone else can fix things. By fix things I mean get rid of all the multiple entries for that GP.

Losartan selecting Cozaar usually happens if you match items from the PMR and patient's previous script was dispensed as Cozaar. If that is not the case, the Cegedim EPS team should escalate that issue to CfH.

Pharmacy Voice: DH must ‘exercise caution’ in EPS 2 roll-out

2012-08-06T10:12:29Z

You should find that your R1 scripts will download faster once R2 is switched on. That's what our pharmacies are finding as we roll out R2 around our group.

If anyone else can support this or did not find downloads quicker once R2 switched on, let us know.

We use Pharmacy Manager as well.