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NHS England is commissioning an independent review of community pharmacy services to make recommendations for “future commissioning models for community pharmacy and the pharmacy workforce” with the aim of improving value through better integration of pharmacy with other services.
Richard Murray, director of policy for the King’s Fund, will lead the review, which is expected to be completed by October 2016.
The review will examine the evidence base, value and operation of the ‎clinical elements of the current community pharmacy contractual framework and other clinical services provided by community pharmacy that are commissioned by NHS England. It will then attempt to identify barriers that prevent “maximal utility of community pharmacy and the community pharmacy workforce” in integrated services and recommend how those barriers might be addressed.
It will also take into account data from local commissioning of community pharmacy clinical services and emerging evidence on new care models being tested in the vanguard sites as part of the implementation of the ‘Five year forward view’ vision.
Finally, the review will make recommendations for “commissioning models and clinical pharmacy services that both integrate and transform the clinical contribution of community pharmacy and the pharmacy workforce”. This includes making recommendations for “commissioning models for community pharmacy and the pharmacy workforce that deliver good patient outcomes and optimal value for money for the taxpayer, when compared to services delivered elsewhere in primary care, taking into account both published national clinical priorities and the need to be able to respond flexibly to local clinical priorities”.
The terms of reference for the review say that it is being undertaken in the context of the changing demands and roles in primary care, as set out in the ‘General practice forward view’, changing patient needs in an ageing population with multiple long term conditions, and evidence of sub optimal outcomes from medicines in primary care settings. The overall objective is “to improve value through integration of pharmacy and clinical pharmaceutical skills into patient pathways and the emerging new care models,” it says.
