The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) has proposed a list of “solutions” for reforms to the current community pharmacy funding contract and negotiations for next year’s deal.
The body said yesterday that it has produced a list of “quick wins” and long-term solutions based on feedback from members about the contract reforms they want to see and the priorities they want Community Pharmacy England to negotiate on their behalf.
“Quick wins”
The IPA’s short-term proposals include business rates being reimbursed “in line with GP and dental colleagues”, which the body said the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) has confirmed it will “discuss with the treasury”.
It also proposed addressing regional differences in branded generic prescribing that can lead to “maldistribution of margin” and loss-making, as well as the introduction of medication reviews to address polypharmacy.
Read more: IPA and doctors’ body launch joint petition on primary care funding
Also mentioned is a call for more support for the legacy workforce seeking independent prescribing (IP) training, stressing that “only 20% of the sector can currently provide IP services”.
The IPA recommended the introduction of electronic repeat dispensing, as it said “unnecessary lengthy periods” of bulk prescribing leads to medicines shortages and wastage.
And it called for the rollout of a hospital discharge medicines service, the acceleration of the provision of vaccination services by pharmacies and a reform of pharmacy market entry to “protect existing NHS provision”.
“Long-term solutions”
A key point in the IPA’s list of long-term solutions is increasing the primary care budget, which the IPA launched a joint petition for with the Doctors’ Association UK last week.
The body has also called to reform the price concession list, and suggested bringing concessions forward to the beginning of the month and having contractors report directly to the DH.
And it urged the government to expand the role of pharmacies as the “front door to the NHS”, saying an effort should be made to assess the pricing model for services “based on the efficiencies that pharmacies deliver”.
Read more: IPA calls for accelerated shingles vaccine rollout after study findings
The full list of the IPA’s “quick wins” and long-term solutions can be seen here.
The IPA said its members “strongly believe that these priorities will greatly benefit the NHS and patient care”, and it “will work together with both stakeholders and decision makers” to achieve them.
Read more: CPE gave ‘abrupt’ response to call for action on contract, says IPA
It comes after the IPA said last month that the pharmacy sector should have a “nationally commissioned role” reviewing patients taking multiple medicines.
The body’s call followed The Times’ investigation into polypharmacy revealing that almost eight million people in the UK take five or more medicines daily, while as many as 1,000 older patients are admitted to hospital each day following preventable adverse reactions to drugs.
