NHS England vision for pharmacy due in 'coming months'
The commissioning body says it is planning to set out the details of how pharmacy teams can be "at the heart of out-of-hospital services"
EXCLUSIVE
NHS England will publish its vision for pharmacy “in the coming months”, C+D has learned.
In response to a question from C+D about when it would publish its long-awaited response to last year’s Call to Action consultation on the sector, the commissioning body said it was "planning to set out our vision for community pharmacy in more detail".
This would reflect its aim for pharmacy teams to play “the fullest possible role at the heart of more integrated out-of-hospital services”, it told C+D on Friday (March 20).
“Their expert skills will help primary care to deliver safer, more effective personalised care, deliver new models of care which make the most efficient use of NHS resources, and relieve pressures within GP practices and A&E,” it said.
NHS England told C+D in December that it would finally publish a response to its Call to Action consultations in “early 2015”. The response would take account of the “best ideas” for “new models of care” arising from last year's consultations for community pharmacy, dentistry, and optometry, it said at the time.
"We need to create headroom"
NHS England’s latest comments about its plans for the sector’s role echoed those made by its chief pharmaceutical officer Bruce Warner last week (March 17). Pharmacists would play an “essential role” in delivering the prevention agenda outlined in its Five Year Forward View document, Mr Warner said at an event organised by think tank The King’s Fund.
Although it contained only four specific references to pharmacy, Mr Warner said the document “really does support the role of pharmacists”.
“We need to create the headroom to allow community pharmacy to fulfill its potential. It’s no good if they simply don’t have time to come out of the dispensary to take up those roles,” he said.
This would involve "unlocking the commissioning system" to allow pharmacists to provide “more patient-focused services”, he added.
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