A debate motion put forward by GP leaders has called for Pharmacy First funding to be “reallocated to general practice” to ensure patients receive “continuity of care from their GP team”.
The motion was proposed by Oxfordshire local medical committee (LMC) for discussion at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference of England LMC representatives taking place this week (November 7), where motions voted in become official BMA policy.
This specific motion, however, may not be debated and voted on due to “reasons of space”, but the BMA said that the chair of its GP committee for England (GPCE) “is prepared to accept [it] without debate as a reference” rather than as policy.
The motion claimed that the Pharmacy First service has “shortcomings”, including “limitations in scope, variability in service quality and the risk of fragmenting patient care”.
And it added that the “redirection of funding from general practice to Pharmacy First undermines the sustainability of primary care services”.
It comes after GP leaders also called for Pharmacy First funds to be “redirected” into general practice and for the service to be “immediately discontinued” at the conference last year.
“Eroding” GP-patient relationships
Oxfordshire LMC also argued in a separate motion that Pharmacy First, along with the “shift towards neighbourhood and multi-neighbourhood contracts”, could “risk fragmenting patient care, eroding GP-patient relationships and undermining clinical outcomes”.
To address this, it called for NHS policy to “prioritise and protect continuity of care within general practice as a central measure of quality, funding and system design”.
This motion has also not been “prioritised for debate” but the GPCE is “prepared to accept” it as a reference, the BMA set out.
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Another motion submitted for consideration by Redbridge LMC but “not prioritised” for debate raised “significant [concerns]” that community pharmacy chronic disease management will “create additional workload and professional responsibility for GPs”.
The LMC called on NHS England (NHSE) to “provide clarity on the role of the GP in supporting community pharmacists” in undertaking chronic disease management.
“Compete fairly” with pharmacies
Meanwhile, a motion chosen for debate and to be proposed by Devon LMC called on GPCE to address the “one-mile dispensing rule” that prevents dispensing doctors from dispensing prescriptions to patients who live within one mile of a pharmacy.
Contributing to the motion, Oxfordshire LMC called for the “immediate abolition” of the one-mile rule, arguing that dispensing doctors should be able to “compete fairly with pharmacies”.
Read more: BMA: GPs will refer to pharmacies ‘when safe capacity breached’
It argued that the rule is “outdated, anti-competitive and harmful” to patients and called for patients to be able to “choose where to have their prescriptions filled”.
And Buckinghamshire LMC also added that dispensing doctors and “the service they offer” should have “equal recognition and funding as community pharmacy”.
Read more: GPs to vote on ‘immediate’ end to pharmacy blood pressure checks
It comes after GP leaders voted “overwhelmingly” for pharmacy blood pressure checks to be “terminated with immediate effect and the money put into pharmacy dispensing fees” at the conference last year.
One LMC representative said at the time that by “failing to fund general practice” and “outsourcing” services to other providers, “more work” was being generated for GPs.
And another stressed that “we cannot afford a race to the bottom” between GPs and community pharmacies.
