Issue - meetings

Report attached.

Oge Chesa/Susan Milner

13:35

 A representative of Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Groups (BHR CCGs) advised the Board that a Pharmacy Intervention Fund had been announced by NHS England in October 2016. This would allow NHS 111 to contract pharmacists to whom people could be referred for the administration of urgent repeat prescriptions. This would run on a pilot basis until April 2018. Pharmacists would also be trained to carry out enhanced services within care homes.

There were no pilots running currently in Havering and so there were unlikely to be any changes to local pharmacy services until 2018. More details on the care home elements were expected to be released later in 2017. A written summary of which Havering pharmacists could currently take referrals from NHS 111 could be provided to the Board.

Officers from Havering CCG added that a new NHS 111 service was in the process of being procured and this would divert people to pharmacists if they simply required a repeat prescription. A small number of local GP practices already employed pharmacists and the CCG also ran a programme to train pharmacists in chronic disease management such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

The Board noted the position.