EXCLUSIVE

Linking the pharmacy and GP contracts is "inevitable", NHS Alliance has said.

One "integrated primary care family" was needed to enable the two professions to work together more effectively, NHS Alliance chief executive Rick Stern told C+D at the launch of the primary care represetative body's vision document last week (October 16).

In the report, NHS Alliance called for healthcare providers to consider "radical ways of funding extended primary care". Money should be ring-fenced to encourage GPs to engage with community pharmacists and voluntary organisations, it said.

Mr Stern told C+D that the principle of "pulling together funding" was a "good one". Primary care needed funding streams that encouraged people to work together, he said.

NHS Alliance chair and GP Mike Dixon also emphasised the need for linked contracts and said it was an "inevitable conclusion" that the future would bring funding models that "stood outside" the current contracts.

"There is going to be a time when individual professionals [working within] contracts that have iron walls around them is going to seem outdated," Dr Dixon said.

However, it would be "very foolish" to suggest integrating the pharmacy and GP contracts "at this stage", he said. Instead, NHS Alliance was encouraging health professionals to "experiment" by "merging their financial sources" to see if it provided "better patient care and great professional satisfaction", Dr Dixon added. 

In its report, NHS Alliance called for an "end to tribalism" and recommended that each area of the country be appointed a "community health connector". This could be a GP, nurse or community pharmacist who could "form strong relationships with a wide range of people and promote the health of the local population", it said.

A "restructured workforce", with community pharmacists having an increased involvement in prescribing and GP practices directly employing pharmacists, would also relieve pressures on GPs, NHS Alliance added.

At the Labour party conference last month, all-party pharmacy group chair Kevin Barron MP called for funding for community pharmacies to be merged with other health professionals. 

	How would aligning the pharmacy and GP contracts benefit the sector?