Government announces pharmacy reforms
New proposals unveiled by the Government today aim to improve the quality of pharmacies and increase local access to them.
Local dispensing chemists are to be protected from full competition by the main supermarket chains. The government rejected a recommendation from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to completely lift restrictions on the number of pharmacies operating in any area.
Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said that she had to take into account wider NHS policy objectives, the impact of changes in regulations on NHS services and patients and found that ‘simple deregulation’ was not the way forward.
‘Community pharmacies play a vital role, particularly in rural and poorer areas, and we will do nothing to jeopardise their position. Pharmacists are trained clinicians, not simply shopkeepers, and they will have an even greater role in the NHS of the future,’ she explained.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee welcomed the proposals but are concerned they could amount to de-regulation by the back door.
‘Those proposals lack detail but they could result in many of the existing safeguards being removed – threatening precisely those neighbourhood pharmacies that patients value so much and that we are anxious to protect for the benefit of local communities and the NHS,’ they explained.
Conservative trade and industry spokesman Tim Yeo expressed disappointment that Government had not made “a clearer decision”.
“This fudge will prolong uncertainty for many community pharmacies, and add to the anxiety of the patients who depend on their survival”, he claimed.
