Health Bill [HL]

The noble Earl, Lord Howe, seeks to amend the clause so that PCTs cannot assess pharmacists’ professional fitness to practise and assess the quality of a pharmacy contractor’s premises when determining an application under the reformed market entry test. The Government made a commitment in 2002 to provide increased protection to the public by ensuring that all registered primary care practitioners performing NHS services in the community were listed with primary care trusts. They subsequently introduced a framework via the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2005 within which primary care trusts can take action if a pharmacy contractor’s professional conduct, competence or performance gives cause for concern when an applicant applies to be admitted to a primary care trust’s pharmaceutical list or afterwards. Known as "fitness to practise", it applies to pharmacies and appliance contractors whether they are sole traders, limited liability partnerships or bodies corporate. A Vision for Pharmacy for 2003 mapped out the ambition for a contractual framework for community pharmacy to reflect modern service requirements and to help ensure community pharmacy is an integral part of the NHS and not just another shop on the high street. The community pharmacy contractual framework went live from April 2005 with all pharmacies providing essential services from October 2005. Primary care trusts are charged with monitoring performance of the framework in their areas. Under the framework, services are divided into three categories: essential services, advanced services and enhanced services. Service specifications were agreed with pharmacy bodies and published for all essential services, advanced services and a number of enhanced services. These include minimum standards, for example, for premises and accreditation of staff. In 2007, the Government published their White Paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety—The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century, which set out a series of proposals to reform professional regulation. The Government are consulting on a draft pharmacy order to take forward recommendations to establish a General Pharmaceutical Council—GPhC—in Great Britain. The GPhC will be the new regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises, taking over the role currently performed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, whose functions are being split. The purpose of this is to modernise and strengthen the regulation of healthcare professionals to ensure patient, public and professional confidence and to make protection of patients and public the first priority. Noble Lords are completely familiar with those issues. As a regulator, the GPhC will have the power both to operate fitness-to-practise procedures to deal with registrants where there are concerns about their fitness to practise and to protect the public from registrants who become unfit to practise and for registration, regulation and inspection of pharmacy premises and enforcement responsibilities. As noble Lords may be aware, under powers in Sections 151 to 153 of the NHS Act 2006, before including a pharmacy or appliance contractor in its pharmaceutical list, a primary care trust must be satisfied that the practitioner is suitable to be included on that list. The sections outline the grounds on which the trusts can refuse to include that person or, if a person is already on the list, the grounds on which they can be removed. I am concerned that this amendment could potentially undermine the powers that have been in place for over three years. I assure the noble Earl that the new GPhC will be encouraged to have further discussions with representatives of the NHS and pharmacy contractors on the standards that they set for community pharmacy which will work across Great Britain in both the NHS and the private sector, and avoid any duplication. The provisions in subsection (2C) of the proposed clause already enable the Secretary of State to stipulate matters that a primary care trust must or must not take into account. I am happy to give every assurance that, in the light of these discussions, we will strive to demarcate in the regulations the respective responsibilities of the new regulator and the responsibilities of primary care trusts. I am not persuaded, however, that it is in the public’s or the NHS’s interest to concede on this particular amendment at this moment. With regard to the question raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, about miles or population, I will need to write to her with further clarification. I ask the noble Earl to withdraw his amendment.