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LPC leaders have slammed NHS England for wasting their time, after the commissioning body revealed it had already published the results of its Call to Action consultation for pharmacy in a document that barely mentions the sector. The commissioning body promised in March to publish its "strategic primary care commissioning framework" in the autumn. This would take account of the responses to its Call to Action consultations for pharmacy, general practice, dentistry and optometry that took place this year, it said at the time. But NHS England told C+D last week that "everything" about its primary care strategy had already been included in its Five Year Forward View document, published in October, which does not mention any of the consultations and only refers specifically to pharmacy four times (see below). Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster LPC chief executive Rehka Shah said many pharmacists had gone "out on a limb" to respond to the Call to Action, and put in an "exorbitant amount of work" in the hope the consultation might influence pharmacy's future. Ms Shah was "horrified" to discover that the Five Year Forward View contained NHS England's entire strategy, and said the commissioning body had ignored the detail many pharmacists had included in their responses.
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LPC leaders: Call to Action was a wasted effort
 | by By Samuel Horti | 05/12/2014 | 16 comments | News |
LPC leaders - including Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster chief Rekha Shah - have slammed NHS England after the commissioning body revealed the outcome of its consultation
Hackney Drug Dealer, Community pharmacist
plus ca change
Sami Khaderia, Non healthcare professional
reminds me of an episode of only fools and horses where del boy says to rodney:
Blimey a Millfall fan could have told you that
Mike Bereza, Community pharmacist
Well done to Rekha Shah for standing up, keep it up.
SP Ph, Community pharmacist
This once again shows, the NHSE is not interested in Pharmacy. This is a classic example of how Pharmacy is being treated by NHSE & DoH, i.e. ""you do something we ask for we don't care and if you don't do what we ask for then definitely we don't care meaning we give a damn for what you think or want, we will do what we want""
Paul Mayberry, Community pharmacist
Why should they care?
They don't owe us anything.
Its up to us as a profession & individually to show the powers that be that we can help solve a lot of the problems of the NHS in a cost effective way.
Chris Pharmacist, Community pharmacist
Not really, its upto NHS England to have the vision, knowledge and understanding to identify how savings can be made in the NHS by effectively utilising pharmacists skills without compromising patient care. After all, that is why senior NHS managers are paid their £100k+ salaries with copper-bottomed pensions.
Personally, I am too busy overseeing a busy pharmacy 40 hours a week to gather and present evidence of pharmacies benefit in communities to NHS commisioners, councillors and MPs and I am sure that I am not the only one.
Time and time again pharmacy is ignored by the NHS, I don't think individual pharmacists should take the burden of blame. There are potentially huge savings to be made by using our skills but clearly NHS commissioners lack vision and understanding or maybe the political will.
Robert Rees, Manager
PS. I suspect that to most of the senior pen pushers and desk pilots at the DH and in Govt., NHS staff as ever remain "our hardworking doctors and nurses"
i think that the C&D should interview NHS Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Keith Ridge to determine what he had done and what he will be doing as a consequence of this
Gerry Diamond, Primary care pharmacist
A good GP support pharmacist friend encouraged me to attend one of these consultation events and she went and said it was very good. I thought the better of it and just went home to be honest and seems like that I made the right decision to do that. As a former local council politician, as a councillor we used to have these 'consultation' events, but as a councillor I knew full well the executive already made its decision anyway. Politics, smoke and mirrors I am afraid.
Paul Mayberry, Community pharmacist
I agree. Taking part in these consultations maybe a waste of time because the decisions have already been made. We need to engage earlier. We need to influence the decision makers, not just when asked but all of the time. How many pharmacists have spoken to their local MP's, councillors, etc and explained that pharmacy is the answer to the problems of the NHS.
Give them solutions, offer them savings and they will (eventually) listen.
Dodo pharmacist, Community pharmacist
I'm glad I didn't waste my time replying to the Call To Action, although I remember at the time all the so-called pharmacy leaders and bigwigs were telling us that it was imperative we made our views known! What a total and utter waste of time. If the NHS wants something from pharmacy then they will come to us, otherwise they are not interested.
Gursaran Matharu, Community pharmacist
At the beginning the CTA was being promised as an unique opportunity to highlight community pharmacy but as the process progressed it became quite clear that it was a "tick box" exercise by NHSE.
