EXCLUSIVE

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) is lobbying the government to introduce CCG-led commissioning of local pharmacy contracts.

These service-led contracts would be decided by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), and would sit beside the national pharmacy contract.

CCGs would decide what services to commission through the local contract by carrying out their own assessment of local populations’ health needs.

The PDA discussed the proposals with the Department of Health (DH) last week during talks on the 6% cut to pharmacy funding in England, the union’s chair Mark Koziol told C+D this week (March 15) in an exclusive interview.

CCG-led pharmaceutical needs assessments (PNAs) would be a “rock solid” way of ensuring patients get the pharmacy service they need, he said.

“We recognise the advantage of having a standard national contract, but we also very strongly embrace the idea of allowing the contract to also have a local flavour,” he said.

“I strongly suspect the DH are going to have a balancing act between having a national contract with the ability for a CCG to give it a local flavour.”

Are local contracts a good idea?

We want to hear your views, but please express them in the spirit of a constructive, professional debate. For more information about what this means, please click here to see our community principles and information