Petition · PE01492 · Session 4
Co-location of GP Practices and Community Pharmacies
Signatures
1
Comments
14
Considered
4 meetings
What it asks
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to:
• Ensure that, within the scope of the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 as amended by SSI/2011/32, co-located community pharmacies and GP practices are permitted and encouraged where patients affected by recent pharmacy applications have expressed the wish to have this facility and suitable space exists to allow this service to operate;
• Review the impact of new pharmacy applications, particularly in rural areas, to establish whether guidance to NHS boards or further amendments to the legislation are necessary.
• Ensure that, within the scope of the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 as amended by SSI/2011/32, co-located community pharmacies and GP practices are permitted and encouraged where patients affected by recent pharmacy applications have expressed the wish to have this facility and suitable space exists to allow this service to operate;
• Review the impact of new pharmacy applications, particularly in rural areas, to establish whether guidance to NHS boards or further amendments to the legislation are necessary.
What the petitioner did first
In 2011 Pitcairn Practice, Balmullo, in NE Fife lost the right to continue its dispensing service because a pharmacy had opened in Leuchars, 2 miles away. Patients lost the highly regarded and valued one stop dispensing service and are now required to travel for fulfilment of their pharmaceutical needs at a pharmacist of choice.
For the last 4 years I and many patients in my GP neighbourhood have sought to have approval for a pharmacy to be co-located within our GP surgery at Balmullo where suitable space exists following the compulsory ending of GP dispensing. A Fife pharmacist and the Pitcairn Practice GPs are in total agreement over how this can be done yet interpretation of current legislation is such that pharmacies outwith my community are being protected from competition at the expense of co-locating a pharmacy within the existing GP practice.
NHS Fife has consulted patients on numerous occasions and the overwhelming response at packed community meetings and to NHS Fife surveys has been overwhelmingly in favour of the co-located independent pharmacy and GP practice.
Despite this, the applications to provide this service have twice failed to be approved. In each case protests from pharmacists not in the neighbourhood area of the practice have overcome any Health Board desire to meet patient needs.
In trying to find a sensible solution to my community problem I have learned that Balmullo is far from being the only example where communities suffer because of the way the current regulations are applied. Tarves, Killin, Millport, Orkney, Whitlawburn Drymen, Carstairs, Methven and now Benbecula and N. Uist are all instances where the current interpretation and application of pharmacy Control of Entry legislation has caused or is now causing concern.
Regarding Millport the community’s MSP has even called for restoration of GP dispensing so dire has been the effect of an unwanted pharmacy being allowed to open.
It is now clear that the interpretation of current pharmacy legislation is totally at odds with the concept of patient choice and patient needs and is in fact seriously damaging rural NHS services not only in Balmullo but also in other areas of Scotland currently experiencing similar circumstances such as Whitlawburn, Millport and Pitmedden. Whilst this petition deals only with community pharmacy matters it is a fact that in virtually all cases where a predatory pharmacy application has not been welcomed by a community it is almost certain to raise ongoing serious concern with regard to local NHS services and how legislation is being applied. We have seen instances of this in Killin, Orkney, Methven, Carstairs and now N Uist.
I have raised my concerns with my local MSP, Roderick Campbell. He shares my views but is unable to get any satisfactory explanation as to the failure of NHS Fife to properly consider patient input on Area Health Board surveys which have shown overwhelming support for the Balmullo application. Patients in other communities such as Whitlawburn, Tarves, Millport, Drymen Methven and others have also raised their concerns with their MSPs that their views are not being given sufficient weight in the legislative processes associated with pharmacy applications whether for community or other pharmacies. I am made aware they receive the standard reply that it is ‘down to Area Health Boards to decide such matters’.
I and my MSP have both contacted the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil, MSP, to point out that patients across Scotland as well as in my own community are not being listened to. I have asked in particular that full weight should be given to the factor of overwhelming local community support for applications for a community pharmacy and especially for those collocated in a GP practice. I asked that further guidance on this be forthcoming to achieve this
For the last 4 years I and many patients in my GP neighbourhood have sought to have approval for a pharmacy to be co-located within our GP surgery at Balmullo where suitable space exists following the compulsory ending of GP dispensing. A Fife pharmacist and the Pitcairn Practice GPs are in total agreement over how this can be done yet interpretation of current legislation is such that pharmacies outwith my community are being protected from competition at the expense of co-locating a pharmacy within the existing GP practice.
NHS Fife has consulted patients on numerous occasions and the overwhelming response at packed community meetings and to NHS Fife surveys has been overwhelmingly in favour of the co-located independent pharmacy and GP practice.
Despite this, the applications to provide this service have twice failed to be approved. In each case protests from pharmacists not in the neighbourhood area of the practice have overcome any Health Board desire to meet patient needs.
In trying to find a sensible solution to my community problem I have learned that Balmullo is far from being the only example where communities suffer because of the way the current regulations are applied. Tarves, Killin, Millport, Orkney, Whitlawburn Drymen, Carstairs, Methven and now Benbecula and N. Uist are all instances where the current interpretation and application of pharmacy Control of Entry legislation has caused or is now causing concern.
Regarding Millport the community’s MSP has even called for restoration of GP dispensing so dire has been the effect of an unwanted pharmacy being allowed to open.
It is now clear that the interpretation of current pharmacy legislation is totally at odds with the concept of patient choice and patient needs and is in fact seriously damaging rural NHS services not only in Balmullo but also in other areas of Scotland currently experiencing similar circumstances such as Whitlawburn, Millport and Pitmedden. Whilst this petition deals only with community pharmacy matters it is a fact that in virtually all cases where a predatory pharmacy application has not been welcomed by a community it is almost certain to raise ongoing serious concern with regard to local NHS services and how legislation is being applied. We have seen instances of this in Killin, Orkney, Methven, Carstairs and now N Uist.
I have raised my concerns with my local MSP, Roderick Campbell. He shares my views but is unable to get any satisfactory explanation as to the failure of NHS Fife to properly consider patient input on Area Health Board surveys which have shown overwhelming support for the Balmullo application. Patients in other communities such as Whitlawburn, Tarves, Millport, Drymen Methven and others have also raised their concerns with their MSPs that their views are not being given sufficient weight in the legislative processes associated with pharmacy applications whether for community or other pharmacies. I am made aware they receive the standard reply that it is ‘down to Area Health Boards to decide such matters’.
I and my MSP have both contacted the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil, MSP, to point out that patients across Scotland as well as in my own community are not being listened to. I have asked in particular that full weight should be given to the factor of overwhelming local community support for applications for a community pharmacy and especially for those collocated in a GP practice. I asked that further guidance on this be forthcoming to achieve this
Where it was considered
Official Report-
10 Dec 20131 mention
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4 Mar 20141 mention
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6 May 20141 mention
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24 Jun 20141 mention
Signatures by country
181 online signaturesComments
14 comments, oldest first-
MARGARET D MACMILLAN 21 Sep 2013We desperately need a resident Doctor here, not a substitute nurse.
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Susannah Dawson 22 Sep 2013The recommendations in the Wilson Barber report pertaining to rural GPs should be acted on, and any existing applications should be suspended until the report has been acted on.
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Doreen Hopkins. 26 Sep 2013Having written three letters supporting a pharmacy in the past 2 years, I hope at long last the residents of Balmullo will get their requests granted.
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William McRae 27 Sep 2013The way the citizens of Balmullo have been treated at all levels of government is disgraceful. Our wishes have been disregarded by committee after committee, usually for not presenting the petitions the "way they would like it"!!! I've personally sent letters to the Prime Minister, The First Minister and of course Nicola in her previous guise
- all to no avail and did not receive a reply from any of them. I hope sincerely that this petition will not fall on deaf ears and that someone with a little "bottle" in the Scottish Parliament has the backbone to follow this to a positive conclusion. -
Thomas Gilchrist 30 Sep 2013The present legislation permits new pharmacy licences in small remote rural areas. The consequent removal of licences from dispensing GP Practices is seriously reducing the wider clinics and services provided by the Health Centre. By removing the scope of the service the Primary Care delivered by the G P Practice is at risk of closing from the evidence of other rural communities where the G P dispensing licence has been removed. This has a damaging effect on the Primary Care Service in Rural Communities all as detailed in the Wilson and Barber report being considered by the Scottish Parliament.
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Barry I Caulfield 30 Sep 2013I cannot believe that the wishes of a wide range of patients in this rural area have been ignored for so long. It is quite obvious that the way of determining the outcome is weighted towards the pharmacists. If the rules need changing in Scotland then kindly change them. It used to work perfectly well before, one saw the doctor and on the way out picked up the prescription. Now it means using the car or bus and wasting time.
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David M Sutcliffe 30 Sep 2013It is beyond my understanding that the wishes of the community of Balmullo have been ignored or overturned so regularly and for so long. Not only does our local practice need this pharmacy for the benefit of the community but it is necessary for the long term health of our GP practice.
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Nick Hopkins 30 Sep 2013This is an important issue and directly impacts the health service as experienced by the local population
- especially those with limited transport. -
Peter J Smith 2 Oct 2013We had a perfactly good sertvace from our practice untill it was passed to a comercial concern, even though the whole comunity patitioned for it to stay with the practice.
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Stewart Grant 8 Oct 2013Our doctors retired early as it was financially impossible to carry on without the income from the dispensary, which they had been told to close by AAHB.
The whole cost paid to our previous surgery by AAHB was approx £250,000 p.a.
Today we are running at, in excess of, £750,000 ( with Locums, because the cannot get doctors, as it is financially infeasible to run the practice without the dispensary). Who ever calls this a better and more economical service for the people, should not be representing the people because they cannot add up!! -
Peter Keiller 8 Oct 2013There's a huge benefit for patients in the "one stop shop" that dispensing GP's are able to provide in rural areas. This valuable service is being sacrificed in order to give patients a right of access to "pharmaceutical services". Patients don't recognise the difference between a dispensary and a pharmacy
- they just want to be able to get their medication conveniently.
New pharmacies frequently destroy carefully constructed rural primary care services whilst offering very little extra that wasn't already available to patients. -
Jim Campbell 11 Oct 2013Our pharmacy applications were approved and then overturned, more than once, by the appeals committee, totally ignoring the wishes of the community and pampering to the commercial outlets. No wonder any trust in these panels and organisations has been eroded to the point of non existance.
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ann macfarlane 31 Oct 2013It is important to have General Practice facilities in rural areas in order that local people can access the practice. Practices need to be able to continue to dispense to retain viability
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Rhona 31 Oct 2013Please do not allow someone to interfere with the life of a village just because he has money
- and wants to!!!!