Independent contractors have called for payments for treating specific health conditions in fresh demands for an overhaul of England's "out-of date" pharmacy contract.

The contract must focus more on services to ensure pharmacists deliver a "personalised model of care" for patients with long-term conditions, delegates said at the Avicenna conference in the Dominican Republic this week (May 29).

There was a consensus that the contract's focus on volume was out of date, reported contractor and former chair of Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth LPC Paresh Modasia.

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	Instead, pharmacists should receive a lump sum for tackling specific conditions such as diabetes or obesity, he argued. Mr Modasia called on PSNC to address these changes in its contract negotiations with the government.

Pharmacists were driving down NHS costs by keeping patients out of hospital, rather than "pumping out medicines", Mr Modasia told C+D. "Pharmacists will improve patient outcomes… but the contract needs to be modelled on the services we are providing," he said.

Noordin Ladha, owner of Noor Pharmacy, Birmingham, agreed the contract must fundamentally change if the government wanted pharmacists to focus more on enhanced services. But he told C+D that he was not confident that the multiples, who were "more focused on profits", would agree to the changes.

Fiona Harris, pharmacist and head of public health commissioning at NHS England's Surrey and Sussex area team, said pharmacists needed to put aside their differences and work together as a profession to galvanise a change in the contract.

"Community pharmacy needs to go to the government with an offer that we have the potential solution to its financial problem but, in doing so, we need to be recognised and compensated for our skill set," she told C+D.

Avicenna and other buying groups wrote a joint letter to PSNC in October last year highlighting contractors' "complete lack of confidence" in the contract and calling for an urgent review.

PSNC told C+D earlier this year its contract negotiations with NHS England would be underpinned by its vision for pharmacy, which included helping patients to optimise use of medicines.