What roles will community pharmacists be doing in the future?
Over the last few years many community pharmacists have taken on challenging new roles in the development of medicines management services, working more closely with other health professionals and primary care organisations. Success in these roles has been demonstrated in terms of quality and cost effectiveness and benefits to patients and the NHS. The new pharmacy contract is the mechanism by which community pharmacists can be remunerated for delivering these services which will help PCTs achieve objectives of the NHS Plan around Patient choice, Public Health and Chronic Disease Management. As a result the community pharmacist is now an integral member of the NHS family and as such has become an important addition to the network of health professionals involved in the planning and delivery of local services. The new pharmacy contract divides services that can be provided by community pharmacists into three tiers of services: essential services, advanced services and enhanced services.
