Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has suggested that a raft of new pharmacy services, including a “menopause advice” and weight management service, be part of a “new 10-year plan” for the NHS.
The proposed services are part of CPE’s submission to Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS, it yesterday (August 13) revealed.
Commissioned by health secretary Wes Streeting, professor Ara Darzi’s independent investigation of NHS performance is set to examine “the challenges facing the healthcare system ahead of the development of a new 10-year plan for health,” CPE said.
Read more: Local services cut by 96% of pharmacies facing funding crunch, CPE reveals
The negotiator’s submission highlighted the sectors’ “scope for further clinical service development”.
“The realisation of untapped clinical potential that exists within the sector and that would relieve pressure on other frontline services,” it said.
13 new or expanded services
The negotiator suggested six new or expanded “public health” services for the sector, including an “open access” smoking cessation service, a case-finding and referral service and “expanded” vaccination services.
It also proposed the addition of atrial fibrillation detection to the hypertension case finding service, “health checks for specific target groups” and a weight management service.
The submission suggested adding long-acting reversible contraception [LARC] – which includes methods like the hormonal coil, the contraceptive injection and the hormonal implant – to the pharmacy contraception service.
Read more: UPDATED: August Pharmacy First consultation threshold dropped to 15
LARC supply, an emergency contraception service and a “menopause advice service” including supply of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) make up three new or expanded “women’s health” services.
CPE has made three suggestions around independent prescribing, including “amendment of prescriptions and deprescribing”, structured medication reviews, and management of long-term conditions.
Finally, the negotiator proposed an “expanded Pharmacy First” service which would include “open access to the current service” and over-the-counter [OTC] medicine supply for “low-income individuals”.
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And it suggested an additional eight Pharmacy First conditions:
- Lower respiratory tract infections
- Acne
- Minor skin infections
- Eczema
- Psoriasis
- Acute otitis externa
- Bacterial conjunctivitis
- Oral thrush in infants
“Sustainable funding”
CPE stressed that there was only “potential for community pharmacies to do more if the Government and NHS provide fair and sustainable funding for community pharmacies”.
In a letter sent to Lord Darzi yesterday, CPE chief executive Janet Morrison to Lord Darzi said “pharmacy has a huge role to play in reducing waiting times through enhancing access to primary care”.
“Our submission details a wide range of further services that can be delivered in community pharmacies,” she added.
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“However, this…can only be realised should there be sustainable funding for the sector,” she said.
Earlier this month, a poll run by the negotiator revealed that 96% of pharmacies had stopped providing a locally commissioned service this year.
And last month, CPE announced that the minimum number of Pharmacy First consultations pharmacies will have to complete in August to qualify for a monthly payment has been reduced from 20 to 15 amid ongoing concerns about the target’s achievability.
