Health Bill [HL]

With the leave of the Committee and at the request of my noble friend, I am very happy to move this amendment on her behalf. The aim of this group of amendments is to seek assurances from the Government that revised regulations enabled by the Bill will not undermine the ability of dispensing doctors to provide services to patients in rural areas. Additionally, it seeks to ensure that patients' preferences are fully taken into account when deciding how pharmaceutical services are to be provided in rural areas. The development of pharmaceutical needs assessments will change the way that applications to provide pharmaceutical services are judged and the future shape of these services. Where this impacts on other health services—for example, if PNAs grant many more pharmacy applications and lead to closures of dispensing doctors' services—that needs to be taken into account. It is vital that the impact on existing services is assessed to produce a complete picture rather than making decisions in isolation. The reason for mentioning services provided by dispensing doctors in particular is that they stand to be directly affected by decisions to open new pharmacies and provide a range of essential medical services to 4 million people across the country. Recently, we have seen that dispensing doctors' services are highly valued by patients. More than 99.9 per cent of responses received by the Department of Health to its recent consultation on the subject advocated no change to these services. It is important that PCTs do not overlook this service, when conducting a PNA, and this amendment would ensure that that was the case. The needs of the elderly and disabled patients are unique. Not only do they have a greater need to access pharmaceutical services, but also they face greater difficulties in doing so due to mobility problems. It is therefore important that, when assessing pharmaceutical needs, PCTs take particular care to recognise the needs of these vulnerable groups and attribute them due weight. Amendment 111C re-emphasises the importance of the services provided by dispensing doctors and aims to ensure that they are not diminished. I beg to move.