Now that the consultation period on the proposed change of pharmacy contract applications to the new Pharmacy Needs Assessments (PNA’s) basis has passed, we must all wait to see how much of the proposals will be implemented and when.
Also, there is no clear statement at the moment about transitional arrangements to cover contract applications that have been made but not determined or determined but not opened to the public before the new arrangements come into force. Unless transitional arrangements are also put into place alongside the new PNA system, then applicants who have applied under the current (2005) system would be disadvantaged. It is understood that in particular that many more 100 hour applications have been submitted than PCTs are likely to be able to process anytime soon.
As to the new PNA based system, most PCT PNAs will already be out of date, having been put in place as required by the DOH for February 2011. In addition, an analysis conducted by the Cooperative pharmacy chain, showed that many of the published PNAs do not meet all the 29 specific characteristics required by the DOH of such documents. Specifically the average compliance of the published PNAs with the 29 characteristics was only about 70% and in the worst case was as low as 48%.. Only 34% of PNAs made reference to patient disabilities and less than a third of PCTs had considered the future health needs of their populace and under 50% mentioned pharmacy services that could improve the current situation.
This analysis of current PNAs would suggest that an early implementation of the PNA basis of considering pharmacy contract applications would only result in a myriad of appeals against such poorly prepared and already out of date PNAs.