Clause 43 - Remote provision of pharmaceutical, etc. services
Health and Social Care Bill
3:30 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
We are discussing an appropriate and sensible development. Clauses 42 and 43 remove legal obstacles to patients having their NHS prescriptions dispensed by mail order or by internet-based e-pharmacies. A small number of pharmacies in the United Kingdom sell medicines and, to a limited extent, dispense prescriptions. I said earlier that we do not intent to tell patients how they should have their prescriptions dispensed. Freedom of choice has always been at the heart of NHS dispensing. I do not see why NHS patients should be denied choices that are open to people with private prescriptions.
The key factor is that mail order and on-line pharmacies must meet the same legal and professional standards as any other pharmacy. That means that all pharmacy and prescription-only medicines must be supplied only from registered pharmacy premises, and such premises are regularly inspected by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. In addition, pharmacy and prescription-only medicines may be supplied only by, or under the supervision of, a registered pharmacist. For prescription-only medicines there must also be a prescription. Breach of any of those rules is a criminal offence.
As well as legal controls, there are professional controls. Pharmacists and e-pharmacists must have the same professionalism and ethical conduct as other pharmacists. They must also acknowledge the special issues that may arise when dealing with patients at a distance.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain's code of ethics includes a standard for the provision of on-line pharmacy services. That standard requires on-line pharmacies to observe British Standards Institution standard BS7799 to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of patient information. It requires on-line pharmacies to ensure that people requesting a pharmacy-only medicine complete a questionnaire appropriate to the product concerned before a decision is made to supply it. If the request or the patient's answer suggests that he would better served by a face-to-face consultation, the pharmacist is required to refer the patient to a convenient pharmacy.
The standard also requires on-line pharmacies to keep records that identify the pharmacist who authorises every supply of a pharmacy or prescription-only medicine. For sales of pharmacy medicines, the records, which must be kept for two years, must give details of the transaction and the information upon which the decision to supply was based. Failure to comply would form the basis of a complaint of misconduct the statutory committee of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, which has the power ultimately to strike off pharmacists found guilty of misconduct. In the case of a pharmacy company, the company's pharmaceutical superintendent be liable, as he would have personal responsibility for the management of the whole company's pharmacy business as well as for the pharmacy in question. Our view is that if those legal and ethical safeguards are met there is no reason why e-pharmacy should not safely provide patients with new choices in obtaining their medicines.
Clause 43 makes further amendments in consequence of the provisions in clause 41 that allow for the provision of pharmaceutical services by remote means. For consistency, it makes explicit that additional pharmaceutical services may include activities carried out away from the contractor's premises and across health authority boundaries. Additional pharmaceutical services are certain extra services that help authorities arrange with pharmacies under directions given by the Secretary of State rather than regulations. The clause makes a number of other essentially technical changes.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 43, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.