Progress has been made on many areas of England’s pharmacy white paper, one year after its publication heralded a “transformation” of the profession.

Although there are a few key missed deadlines, the government has fulfilled or is making steps towards many of the commitments it made in its blueprint for pharmacy, C+D has found.

The appointment of a community pharmacy tsar, plans to shake up pharmacy education, a summary care records access pilot, steps to strengthen PNAs and a national vascular screening programme are some of the targets that have been hit so far.

Major pharmacy bodies, including the NPA, PSNC, CCA and IPF agreed progress was being made. If there was little to show in terms of implementation, they said, much “preparatory” work and research was going on behind the scenes. “All of that’s building the foundations for the next year going forward,” said PSNC head of information services Alastair Buxton.

But there was a need for a clearer “vision” of what policy would mean at the coalface, the NPA and CCA agreed.

Lack of progress on directed enhanced services (DES) – which will require PCTs to commission certain services, if needed, from pharmacy – is one of the most glaring missed targets. Discussions were due to begin last spring but have yet to get off the ground.

The DH has also yet to deliver promised proposals to set up a national minor ailments scheme by spring 2009.

And control of entry problems, alongside existing financial challenges, could cause white paper progress to take “one step forward and two steps backwards”, warned Independent Pharmacy Federation chairman Fin McCaul. “The white paper is a good idea but the current environment we’re working in is not conducive to getting good results from it,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said it had made “good progress” on the white paper and that it continued to work closely with stakeholders and interested parties, including NHS Employers and PSNC.

These two organisations have presented proposals on how MURs could be targeted to meet health needs, and funded to reward outcomes.

The DH spokesperson said the Department was considering these plans along with responses to the white paper consultation, which included matters such as 100-hour pharmacy contract applications.

Further details would be made available “as soon as practicable”, and the full report of the consultation published “in due course”.

White Paper hits:

Clinical leaders

Jonathan Mason was appointed national clinical director for community and primary care pharmacy in October

Education

A shake-up of the pharmacy qualification is underway, linking it to other healthcare professions for the first time

Vascular screening

A national programme for vascular risk assessment announced last summer was introduced this week and includes community pharmacy as a key delivery route

White paper misses:

Minor Ailments

Proposals to incorporate a national minor ailments scheme into the contract were due this spring, but PSNC says negotiations have yet to begin

Directed Enhanced Services

Moves to require PCTs to commission certain directed enhanced services from pharmacy were due to begin last spring, but PSNC says discussions have not started

Publicity campaign

Preliminary plans for a communications programme to increase public understanding of community pharmacy were due last autumn; the DH expects to publish outline proposals “shortly”