Agenda item

To receive a briefing note from the Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group on repeat prescriptions and pharmacies.

Lesley Gant, the Head of Medicines Optimisation, Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) presented a briefing note to the Commission on repeat prescriptions and pharmacies.  The responsibility for measuring the performance of pharmacies fell within NHS England, but Members heard that it was difficult to monitor whether the administration of prescriptions was carried out in a timely manner because there were no targets.

Ms Gant added that she had been asked whether it was preferable to locate pharmacies on the same site as the General Practitioner (GP) practice, but she was of the view that this was not necessarily preferable. There were pharmacies on site, but it could be seen that some people preferred to go elsewhere. It was important that people had a choice.

Members asked about the process for submitting a complaint and heard that pharmacies were obliged to display information advising people how to make a complaint. Pharmacists were not allowed to increase their revenue by withholding the repeat slip (the right hand side of the repeat prescription form) in order that the customer was obliged to go to them for their repeat prescription.  Ms Gant said that they were aware that some pharmacies were withholding the repeat slip and this issue would be considered as part of the community engagement exercise currently being undertaken.

Concerns were raised about repeat prescriptions being sent by post, particularly to residents who lived in houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) because of the risk of the prescription being picked up by the wrong person. Members heard that complaints had been submitted to the General Pharmaceutical Council about ‘Pharmacy2U’ about this practice; however they were not doing anything illegal. A Member questioned whether the Commission could also write a letter to the General Pharmaceutical Council expressing concerns about postal prescriptions particularly in view of the number of HMOs in Leicester.

A Member expressed concern that pharmacies did not always communicate to the patient where a medicine or product was out of stock; a telephone call or a text message could save a wasted visit to the pharmacy. Ms Gant commented that often this was down to the staff in the pharmacy being very busy, and frequently the patient went in too soon to collect their prescription. Members questioned whether the patient understood that there would be a delay before the prescription would be ready and suggested that pharmacists needed to talk to the patient about this.

A Member expressed concerns that in some areas there were too many pharmacies while in other locations there were not enough.  Ms Gant explained that the locations were reviewed every three years and was part of the current consultation.

In response to a query, Ms Gant explained that if a specialist nurse in a G.P. practice left, the responsibility for continuing to carry out assessments and issuing repeat prescriptions for patients with long term medical needs fell to the G.P. who employed them. G.P.s had a contractual Quality Outcome Framework and if those patients did not receive their reviews and assessments, the G.P. would not be meeting their framework.

In response to a query, Ms Gant explained that pharmacists had a system of alerts as to whether a patient was no longer requesting or receiving their repeat prescriptions, and they did talk to G.Ps about this, though those conversations may not always happen very quickly.

The Chair drew the discussion to a close and suggested that the recommendations arising from the community engagement exercise be shared with the Commission. Following that, Members would consider whether to write to the General Pharmaceutical Council expressing their concerns relating to postal prescriptions, particularly to residents who lived in HMOs. 

AGREED:

1)    that the report be noted:

2)    that the recommendations arising from the community engagement exercise be shared with the Commission,  and following that, Members to decide whether to write to the General Pharmaceutical Council expressing concerns relating to postal prescriptions, particularly to residents living in   houses of multiple occupation.