Health and Social Care Committee - July 2023
The Committee's independent Expert Panel evaluating Government commitments on pharmacy has found that overall progress 'requires improvement' across a number of areas.
Evidence shows that demand for community pharmacy services has increased significantly with community pharmacies struggling to deliver services within the existing funding model, or even to remain open.
Community pharmacy was one of five policy areas examined by the Panel along with integrated care, hospital pharmacy, workforce education and training, and extended services. Experts found that available funding was not sufficient to keep pharmacies open, struggling financially with increased demand for dispensing, workforce pressures and rising costs due to inflation. One of the other commitments requiring improvement covered a scheme intended to protect access to local physical NHS pharmaceutical services in areas where there were fewer pharmacies.
A commitment by Government to eliminate paper prescribing in hospitals and introduce digital or e-prescribing across the entire NHS by 2024 was rated 'inadequate' overall. Experts found that poor 'digital maturity' was partly responsible and reported that even prioritised funding for IT systems was insufficient.
On workforce education and training, the report ranks a government commitment to roll out a three-year education and training programme for primary care and community pharmacy professionals as requiring improvement, with providers unable to afford to pay to backfill staff sent on courses. A commitment to make legislative changes to improve the skill mix in pharmacies and enable the clinical integration of pharmacists has not been delivered and was rated 'inadequate' overall.
Out of nine commitments separately evaluated over five areas, two were rated as 'good', five as 'requires improvement' and two were 'inadequate'.
Read the Report - Expert Panel: evaluation of the Government's commitments in the area of pharmacy in England
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