Clause 29 - Pilot schemes
Health and Social Care Bill
10:30 am
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
Patients will be able to go to the pharmacy of their choice, although an LPS scheme might design a particular type of service so that it would make sense, and be more convenient, for the patient to go to a particular pharmacy scheme. That is obviously possible in the design of LPS schemes, but the fundamental position is that patients should be able to take their NHS prescription to the pharmacist of their choice. The hon. Gentleman is perhaps thinking of a system in which an LPS pilot is providing sufferers of a particular condition services that are not generally available. Under those circumstances, it might well make sense for the patient to take advantage of the service that would not be available to them elsewhere. However, that is not the same as saying that they can obtain their NHS prescription from only one specified pharmacist.
We have made it clear, and no doubt we will discuss this issue again when we deal with electronic transmission of prescriptions, that patients must be able to retain the final choice of pharmacy to dispense their prescription.
The hon. Member for the Isle of Wight asked me to deal specifically with GP expenses and whether they adequately cover the type of relationship between a GP practice and a pharmacist that he would like to see. This is not a matter that I have previously been invited to consider in any detail. If he would care to drop me a line, I will do so, but I make no promises, given the usual thorny issues of GP expenses. He is certainly welcome to raise the matter with me.
The hon. Gentleman asked me also whether it is our intention that pilots should become permanent. The later clauses deal with that. It is certainly envisaged, as it has been with PMS and PDS, that both individual pilots and the general provision of LPS should become permanent arrangements, so the early pilots may became permanent arrangements, subject to review and evaluation.
Similarly, the ability to use LPS would become part of the local health authority's armoury, without the need to refer to the Secretary of State, as in the pilot scheme process. That is some way down the line. The hon. Gentleman will know that we have not reached that stage with PMS yet, although we are using pilots quite widely and it is envisaged in the Bill.