Dr Malcolm Ward reflects on the current threat to dispensing

It has been a tough few years for doctors, and dispensing doctors in particular. The New Contract, OFT report, and Shipman Inquiry have all been in the headlines, but we also now again face a very real threat to the very future of dispensing practices.

Several years after reaching a robust agreement between the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), General Practitioners Committee (GPC), DDA and the Department of Health for changes to the rural dispensing regulations, and having appeared to have survived the rigours of the OFT Inquiry, the DH has come up with a potentially terminal glitch.

It is a glitch that will severely test this Chairman and those involved at the GPC and the PSNC. However we are standing firm, shoulder to shoulder, to defend an agreement that we sincerely believe will provide a secure and stable future for the delivery of General Medical Services and Pharmaceutical Services in rural areas.

By the time this Comment is published, it is hoped the Government will have been convinced of the merit of our pragmatic arguments and avoided unleashing a further tide of rural discontent and confrontation with the professions in the run-up to the General Election.

I will bring members up to date with the latest position at this year's Annual Conference at Harrogate from 15-17 October, and of course you will be able to read about it on the Association's website.