EXCLUSIVE

LPCs are wary of NHS England plans to give clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) greater control over primary care services.

The scheme, which will see CCGs given the opportunity to co-commission primary care services with NHS England, could lead to pharmacy losing out on some services, LPCs told C+D on Wednesday (May 7).

NHS England announced last week (May 1) that it will invite all CCGs to submit detailed proposals on how they would use these new powers to improve healthcare in their communities. It will then decide whether to hand over greater commissioning responsibilities to individual CCGs.

The sector's negotiator PSNC said that the plans were an "important opportunity" for LPCs to share ideas with CCGs and help shape the future of primary care.

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	But LPCs warned there could be a "conflict of interest" if CCGs had more power over primary care services and said pharmacists should be careful when entering into discussions with these commissioners.

Devon LPC project pharmacist Mark Stone said he was concerned CCGs would see pharmacy as an "easy place to make cutbacks" if they were granted power to commission contracted pharmacy services.

"There could be opportunities and it would be great to explore those, but you'd certainly proceed with caution if [CCGs] commissioned the core services," he told C+D.

Sunderland LPC secretary Jim Smith welcomed the opportunity for greater engagement with CGGs, but said there was a risk CCGs would commission more services among themselves.

Continuing changes to the commissioning rules were becoming "ridiculous" and preventing healthcare providers from finding a way to solve the "primary care crisis", he added.

Nick Hunter, Doncaster LPC secretary and chief officer at Nottinghamshire and Rotherham LPCs, was more optimistic. Although new CCG powers were unlikely to make a short-term difference to pharmacists, they could be used as a "tool" to obtain more primary care services in the long-term, he told C+D.

"It can start that dialogue going. I'd like to see it bring in services that will deliver on the medicines optimisation agenda," he said.

To gain the new commissioning powers, CCGs will need to submit plans to NHS England by June 20 to explain how they will help advance care integration, raise standards and cut health inequalities. NHS England would have a "continuing oversight role" to safeguard against conflicts of interest, it said.

In March, National Association of Primary Care president James Kingsland said he was aware of some CCGs trying to "ringfence" their budgets for local enhanced services and told pharmacists to challenge these "questionable practices".

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