Clause 38 - Control of entry regulations
Health and Social Care Bill
2:45 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
We discussed the role of PMS in providing innovative services. There is conceptually a difference between a PMS pilot or any other service that is restricted to dispensing to the patients of a particular practice and a LPS scheme or general national contract pharmaceutical service scheme that provides dispensing services to all the patients in the area who hold an NHS prescription. We are doing nothing to change the existing provisions, but the right hon. Gentleman's example is not analogous to the provision for local pharmaceutical service schemes, which is particularly to ensure that a pharmacy that enters into a pilot scheme is afforded the same protection that it would have had under the national contract.