So, the much-awaited community pharmacy contract is now out. Surprisingly it’s not been as noisy as I expected, on both social media and all the WhatsApp groups.
I mean, when it was initially announced there was some noise, but not much over the weekend that followed. I suspect because people weren’t expecting a miracle so there’s just apathy about it. It’s just “meh”.
Or perhaps it’s because people realise that the sudden change in government personnel on the day the CPE committee were voting, and with the economy as it is, led to some strategic thinking.
Do we accept an okay-ish deal or push it back and either wait several more months or have a contract imposed upon us? What would you do?
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The thing that has caused most noise is the fact that there is an expectation to utilise independent prescribers with no additional remuneration.
This is unacceptable. We’re always being told that a GP appointment costs the NHS £35 to £40, so if we are saving a GP appointment, then why are we only getting paid £17.
It will be interesting to see what people decide to do as I’ve heard many contractors/pharmacists say that they will not be signing up to this service as the remuneration is not sufficient.
I’ve seen some GP’s weighing in with comments about how this is more than they get for prescribing – totally ignoring the fact that they get a fee per patient, IT, premises, ARRS funding and more paid for. You cannot compare apples to pears!
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We often hear people saying that the contracts are not aligned and that we are almost made to compete with each other.
I don’t agree with that, it’s obvious that we in community pharmacy are tasked with doing some of the easier clinical tasks eg vaccinations, BP/ABPM etc to give general practice capacity to see patients with long term conditions which in turn will hopefully avoid them getting worse and ending up in hospital.
I’ve heard GP’s say they sometimes want patients who are easier to see as the time taken with them is shorter, so it allows them to catch up when running behind or gives them breathing space – that’s different to us having competing contracts. It’s deeper than that.
It’s not just funding that needs to change, it’s more than that, it’s culture and changing culture takes time and is not easy.
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I found the part around training time interesting. How many pharmacies are really going to close their business when neighbouring pharmacies will be open? I’m constantly hearing about pharmacies that are allegedly “stealing” nominations from other pharmacies.
If a pharmacy is closed for their training time what’s to stop neighbouring pharmacies taking these patients on? The positive is that we are being treated like General Practice who do get protected learning time. Now we have the option, I do hope we see pharmacies using it.
We often hear people talking about the trade bodies needing to speak with one voice and whilst I agree that that needs to be done, we also need all pharmacies on the ground to stick together.
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That means no free deliveries, no chasing/stealing nominations, not offering dossette boxes free of charge etc.
It didn’t used to be like this. There was a time when if you didn’t have something in stock you would send your patient to a neighbouring pharmacy (or borrow the stock from them) and that pharmacy would furnish that prescription and next month the patient would come back to you.
There was an unwritten rule/agreement that they were not your patient and therefore you wouldn’t try and lock them into your pharmacy. Some pharmacies still have that great relationship but unfortunately too many don’t.
I think this will be a wait and see. Will the trade bodies work together with CPE on a reform of the contract which has been promised? Will we see a change in culture in primary care? Will we all work together locally? Let’s hope that we see all of this, though I’m not going to hold my breath.