Current Petitions

The sixth current petition is PE1492, by Alan Kennedy, on co-location of general medical practices and community pharmacies. Members have before them a note by the clerk and the submissions. Members will be aware that, when the petition was first discussed, I made it clear that I had been heavily involved, particularly in the Western Isles, and to a certain extent in Caithness, where the situation had come to a head.

When Mr Kennedy appeared before the committee, he promised to give us some further points. I felt that he made a number of powerful points in his submission about encouraging general practitioner practice co-location with willing pharmacies, where the community supports that.

Alex Neil made a robust response to the committee, which referred to the Wilson Barber review—a review that was extremely helpful and moved things on in a positive way. However, there are still a number of outstanding issues and consultation is still going on to try to find a way forward. There are particular issues in rural and remote areas; the situation is probably different in our cities and larger towns, although I am sure that members have examples where that is not the case. I had an example in Benbecula where a well-functioning and well-respected GP surgery was providing a pharmacy service when a pharmacy application came in. The approval structure for that is bizarre, and the cabinet secretary would probably agree with me that it is a strange way of operating. If a new pharmacy is set up, it will mean that the practice will lose staff and perhaps GPs. The key point is that the community is almost 100 per cent opposed to that.

There are wider issues about whether the GP contract effectively allows profits from pharmacy services to be reinvested in the business, but I do not want to take the committee off on a tangent. Although it is a complicated issue, I thought that it would be useful if I gave a quick summary of my understanding of where we are at.

Just to clarify, I do not think that anything that I said suggested that we should close the petition.

I ask members to look at the last page of Alex Neil’s very lengthy and quite helpful letter. He states:

“Our Vision and Action Plan, published last September, will further empower NHS Boards to pro-actively plan through their Pharmaceutical Care Services Plans. This will enable Boards to plan and procure NHS pharmaceutical care based on the identified needs of local communities. Final proposals on this issue will be subject to further consideration and consultation.”

That will be a step in the right direction. The matter has not been finalised yet, because there is still consultation to be done. I think that the petitioner mentioned that, although he hoped that he would be asked to submit his views, he has not been.

There is another option for the committee. The Health and Sport Committee intends to hear evidence on the Government’s “Prescription for Excellence: A Vision and Action Plan for the Right Pharmaceutical Care through Integrated Partnerships and Innovation” in the coming months. One option is to ask that our work be transferred to the Health and Sport Committee, given that it is undertaking an inquiry. What are members’ views on that?

To clarify, I think that there will be a one-off evidence session rather than a fully fledged inquiry.

Angus MacDonald makes a good point. Why do we not write to the convener of the Health and Sport Committee and clarify exactly what it has in mind? If it ends up being a fully fledged inquiry, perhaps that is a different aspect for the committee to consider. That is a good point. We will do that.

I agree with that, but can we find out further information before we pass the petition over?

Will John Wilson summarise his view on that?

Does Chic Brodie agree with that course of action?

We will pursue that course of action. When we have received a full reply from the Scottish Government and the Health and Sport Committee, we can analyse the issue again.