Patients stand to benefit thanks to an efficiency drive that will
allow all local pharmacies to dispense medicines more
efficiently, the government announced today.
Currently, larger pharmacy chains can take advantage of the
efficiencies and cost-savings that come with centralising the
dispensing of medicines at a larger ‘hub'.
But smaller independent pharmacies are unable to operate the same
model due to legal restrictions on dispensing for pharmacies
under different ownership, meaning they can face additional costs
and workload.
Under the changes announced today, the government will progress
in making the ‘hub and spoke' model universally available,
allowing pharmacies belonging to different legal entities to use
hubs belonging to other companies. This will level the playing
field between smaller pharmacies and larger chains.
The changes will enable pharmacists to dispense medicines more
efficiently and spend more time dealing face to face with
patients.
Primary Care Minister,
said:
“We're continuing our drive to make access to medicines and care
faster, simpler and fairer for all patients, including at local
pharmacies.
“These proposals will level the playing field and enable our
hard-working community pharmacies to benefit from centralised
dispensing.
“It will also free up highly skilled pharmacists from back-office
duties to deliver patient-facing services, including Pharmacy
First and contraception consultations, supply medicines and
provide advice.”
The government ran a consultation on its plans for a wider ‘hub
and spoke' model rollout in 2022 and received an overwhelmingly
positive response.
Now, subject to Parliamentary approval, all pharmacies will have
an option of two hub and spoke models from
2025.
The proposed legislation was a commitment made under the Primary
Care Recovery Plan and is the latest of several initiatives being
delivered to improve the efficiency of pharmaceutical services
across the country.
Legislation to give greater powers to pharmacy technicians was
also laid in April which, if approved by Parliament, will free up
staff to carry out more tasks and free up more time for
pharmacists.
Background:
- The link to the consultation response can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/hub-and-spoke-dispensing/outcome/government-response-to-the-consultation-on-hub-and-spoke-dispensing
- Dispensing medicines covers a number of processes - including
the receipt of a prescription, the clinical and accuracy checks,
sourcing of the products, the preparation, assembly and supply of
medicines and advising the patient to ensure they know how and
when to take the medicine. Traditionally, all of these different
processes have been done in a single pharmacy based in the
community.
- The concept of hub and spoke dispensing is that the routine
elements of dispensing activity can take place on a large scale
at a pharmacy known as “the hub”, separate to the pharmacy at
which the prescription was handed in, which is known as “the
spoke.” Existing hubs usually make use of automated processes to
realise economies of scale and efficiencies, freeing up time and
space for pharmacists and pharmacy team's time to focus on
delivering other services to patients.
- Read more about new powers for pharmacy technicians here:
New
powers for dental and pharmacy staff to free up appointments -
GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
