The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has finally made its official counter-offer to the government’s proposed cuts to pharmacy funding in England. Like any seasoned negotiator, it has tried to make its new deal appear beneficial to both parties.

Rather than a 6% drop in the global sum, PSNC argues, pharmacists could claw back the same amount of money from the prescribing budget by suggesting cost-effective alternatives and reducing medicines waste.

The timing could have been better. The reputation of community pharmacy services has taken a battering in the mainstream media this month, following the Guardian’s allegations about the target-driven attitude of Boots’ management to medicines use reviews (MURs) – allegations the multiple has denied.

The newspaper’s claims, backed up by a survey conducted by the Pharmacists’ Defence Association, struck a chord with overworked employee pharmacists. Readers who took part in C+D’s Twitter debate on the issue confirmed what many of you already knew – that target-based pressure is not limited to Boots, but is a sector-wide problem.

Perhaps the dented reputation of MURs is an area where pharmacists could follow in the footsteps of PSNC and make a counter-offer of their own. The examples of inappropriate or profit-driven medicines reviews may have stolen the headlines, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of the thousands of useful MUR-related interactions you carry out each week.

So I’d like to pick up on one suggestion made by a reader, and ask you all to send in your own examples of medicines reviews that did benefit a patient. Did you discover an elderly asthmatic was using their inhaler inappropriately? Or did you unearth a cupboard full of simvastatin hoarded by a patient because of concerns over the drug’s side effects? Let us know at [email protected].

Spotlight on mental health

Another counter-offer to pharmacy’s funding woes could be to highlight the less well publicised ways that community pharmacists support vulnerable patients. Our features this week focus on one area where this can happen – mental health.

Whether supporting pregnant mothers on antidepressants, or setting aside time for patients with anxiety, you can have an impact on a daily basis.

Saving the NHS money and targeting neglected patient groups? Let’s hope that’s an offer the DH can’t refuse.

 

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