RPS responds to consultation on Primary Care Networks | Royal Pharmaceutical Society | RPS
We've long advocated for the increasing use of pharmacists’ skills and expertise across the NHS. We welcome the concept and development of PCNs to enable collaboration in primary care to improve the health of their local populations. The additional medical and pharmacy workforce, as part of the PCN agreement, would help to deliver the current workload and improve patient access.
PCNs have a unique opportunity to focus the pharmacy workforce to support the delivery of services across primary and secondary care, moving away from ‘place based’ service delivery to one which is person-centred.
Whilst we support the intention of these draft service specifications, we have concerns around implementation and delivery which we hope will be addressed during this consultation process. These include making best use of pharmacists’ skills and knowledge, the pace of implementation and impact on workload, workforce and recruitment.
RPS is committed to working with partners and stakeholders to maximise pharmacy’s contribution to patient care and the NHS. We recognise the positive efforts by NHSE/I to engage on these draft proposals and would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further.