Members of the Board gave consideration to the Chair and members of the People Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s Community Pharmacies Report January 2017.  The Director of Health and Wellbeing introduced the item and outlined the background to the report.  Members were informed that the Government had set out initial proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond in an open letter to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and other stakeholders on 17th December 2015. The proposals had included revised contractual and funding arrangements. A period of formal consultation had ended on 24th May 2016, although confidential discussions had continued beyond that date.

Following a Notice of Motion to Council in July 2016, this issue had been referred to the People Overview & Scrutiny Committee for further consideration. On the advice of NHS England, it was not practical to commence a detailed scrutiny review immediately as the Government had not, at that time, made a formal response to the consultation nor provided detailed proposals regarding the future contractual and financial arrangements for community pharmacies. 

Once the Government’s final proposals had been made public in October 2016, a task & finish group had met in November to consider the potential impact of the changes to Wirral. The group had agreed that the objectives of the review were:

•  To understand the rationale behind the current provision of community pharmacies in Wirral. 

•  To review the implications for Wirral of the Government proposals for changes to the contractual framework and funding of community pharmacies.

•  To ascertain whether action or intervention by the various partners would be necessary to mitigate the impact on services. The report attached as Appendix 1 documented the findings of the members and the conclusions which had been drawn. On 1st February 2017, this report had been approved by the People Overview & Scrutiny Committee and had been referred to the Health & Wellbeing Board for further consideration.

Councillor Moira McLaughlin, Chair of the People Overview & Scrutiny Committee being unable to attend the meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Board Councillor Angela Davies, who had been a member of the task and finish group, attended the meeting and outlined the report and the recommendations to the Board.

Councillor Phil Gilchrist commented that the task and finish group had been a learning experience for members and the intention was to flag up an early warning system in case any pharmacies were to close and further to ensure that no communities were left without pharmacies. In relation to recommendation 6 – Repeat prescription pilot scheme of the report Dr Sue Wells commented that that there was always a 2 month delay receiving the outcome of the pilot scheme and an update from the CCG regarding the outcomes with particular reference to the patient experience of this pilot would be brought to People O & S and the HWB as appropriate. In relation to paragraph 6.3 of the report she commented that GP’s guidance encouraged self-care for minor conditions - for minor coughs, colds for example GP’s would not prescribe. She also noted that in the second paragraph of 6.3 the final sentence ‘and as a result [people] will have to visit the GP for a free prescription’ should be taken out as this had been updated as Level 1 of the Think Pharmacy had ceased. Councillor Angela Davies agreed that this would be brought to the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and as members had requested a report on local impact would come back to the Scrutiny Committee – Recommendation 6 of the Community Pharmacies scrutiny Review – Final Report refers.

Councillor Tony Smith questioned why the pharmacy at Sainsbury’s Upton was not included in the list attached to the report and was informed this would be looked into. Councillor Phil Gilchrist requested that the Health and Wellbeing Board be kept informed about pharmacy services and was assured by the Director of Health and Wellbeing that the Board would be kept updated.

Resolved – That the report and recommendations of the Community Pharmacy scrutiny review be noted.