This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Executive rejects OFT report on pharmacies
26/03/2003
The Executive will not be accepting the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report on pharmacies, it was announced today.
The report recommends that the current control arrangements for NHS pharmacy contracts should be abolished. The Executive asked for comments on the report from Scottish interests before responding.
Deputy Health Minister Frank McAveety:
"After careful consideration of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report, the results of the public consultation and the view of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Executive Ministers have concluded that deregulation is not the way forward for Scotland.
"Our prime consideration was to weigh the OFT recommendation against our public health policy and the potential impact on patients.
"We remain totally committed to The Right Medicine: A Strategy for Pharmaceutical Care. Our recent White Paper, Partnership for Care, reinforces its aims by setting out our plans for improving health, partnership working and quality improvement.
"The OFT report suggests that deregulation would benefit consumers, but consumers are also patients. At the forefront of my mind has been the possible impact deregulation would have on patients in Scotland's remote and rural communities and deprived urban areas. These patients rely heavily on ready access to local community pharmacy and medical support services and that service must be maintained.
"Scotland has, proportionally, more remote and rural areas than other parts of the UK, as well as higher levels of deprivation. The key consideration for the Executive is access to services in these areas. We believe the OFT's report would run the significant risk of at least reducing, and at worst, removing services in some areas. We are not prepared to take that risk.
"Our current network of community pharmacists already plays a key role in helping improve the health of the people of Scotland and providing care for patients. This is due to the welcome commitment of the profession to deliver our pharmaceutical strategy.
"It is against this background that we have begun to negotiate a new contract for community pharmacies. The primary focus of those negotiations will be on implementing the strategy but we will also consider how the existing regulatory framework can be improved to take account of health policy in Scotland. We will take the opportunity to consider how pharmacy services in the future can best respond to the interests and needs of patients and consumers in Scotland.
Deputy Health Minister, Frank McAveety announced a consultation of the OFT report on 17 January 2003.
Consumer interest issues are a reserved matter for the UK Government.
Health is a devolved issue and it will be for Scottish Ministers to decide what action, if any, should be taken regarding the statutory arrangements for controlling entry to NHS Pharmaceutical Lists which are introduced in 1987.
Regulations made under the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978 provide that a pharmacy shall be granted the right to dispense NHS prescriptions only if it is "necessary or desirable" to secure the adequate provision of pharmaceutical services in the neighbourhood.
The Right Medicine was published on 4 February 2002 and forms part of the overall plan outlined in Our National Health which made a commitment to produce a national strategy for pharmaceutical care. Implementation of the strategy will improve access to healthcare, promote the safer use of medicines and enhance the role of pharmacists.