Community Pharmacy Tees

Community Pharmacy Tees

(Tees LPC)

Chairman

Jay Badenhorst

Whitworths Chemist, 4A Varo Terrace, Stockton on Tees, TS18 1JY

Tees Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC)

Annual Report April 2012-March 2013

Chair’s Foreword

The delivery of high quality services across Tees remain a recurring theme and a big ‘Thank You’ must go to all pharmacy teams for their consistent focus and drive in what has been, and will continue, to be a difficult time of transition and change within the NHS.

The reorganisation of NHS commissioning bodies, with the devolution of power across a range of organisations, has proved challenging in the early stages with a significant number of new individuals and groups that we must engage with, in order to keep pharmacy at the forefront of service provision, for the benefit of our local populations.

As a result of the ongoing climate of financial constraints, LPC’s nationally have faced many challenges with regards to commissioning of services, and in some instances have seen decommissioning of existing provisions. However, Tees LPC has forged some excellent and strong foundations both within Public Health and moving forward with Local Authorities, NHS England Area Teams and Public Health England. It has resulted, not only in maintenance of services, but an increase in the number of opportunities within pharmacy.

The Healthy Living Pharmacy pilot has now been successfully implemented in the 17 wave one teams and this has expanded to a further 33 pharmacies taking on the challenge in wave two. The ongoing ethos of proactive delivery of key health promotion messages to all customers under the umbrella of ‘Making Every Contact Count’ has really driven forward the public health agenda which is not only recognised as excellent by our customers, but also by commissioners across all remits.

The introduction of PharmOutcomes is currently being negotiated across a wide range of services which will not only provide the evidence based pharmacy platform but will streamline invoicing, payments and communication. This has not been easy and there still remain a few challenges. However, the LPC is committed to ensuring we implement this platform as a matter of urgency.

LPC members have been attending many regional and national conferences, all feeding back a recurring message: the delivery and proof of value is paramount to ongoing commissioning of service, for all commissioners. Not only should a service be cost effective but it must ensure that the delivery is consistently of a high standard, meet the needs of the local population and provide outcomes focused evidence.

The committee has undergone some changes over the last year. However the focus has been maintained in supporting contractors to deliver above and beyond the requirements of the Pharmacist role. Above this the LPC has been working tirelessly to ensure ongoing communication with a variety of organisations to make the voice of Community Pharmacy heard. Thanks you to all their ongoing support.

We have a new LPC website and have also started using social media. Any comments or suggestions are always welcomed either via the website (section at the bottom) or via the new Chief Officer.

Websites

Facebook:

Twitter:

There was additional information sent out to all pharmacy teams regarding social media that the LPC do not expect anyone to breach their company procedures that could ultimately lead to disciplinary procedures. However, many pharmacists and team members do access social media sites outside of normal contracted hours and therefore could benefit from the information posted. It was never the intention for 'the company' to follow or like but will be up to the individual who wishes to do this.

All LPC meetings have an open section usually in the morning when all contractors are more than welcome to attend. Please visit the website for dates.

Kind Regards

Jay Badenhorst

Tees LPC Chair

LPC Members April 2012 – March 2013

A summary of members’ attendance at LPC meetings

*Peter Horrocks was elected as AimP representative following the January LPC meeting

**Adam Crampsie was appointed CCA representative at the March LPC meeting

***Brian Roe was appointed CCA representative at the October meeting

****VaibChhatwal left the LPC 30th October 2012 and Shaun Fernandes left the LPC on 14th Jan 2013

LPC Officers

Michael Maguire and Kate McQuade continued in their roles as chair and vice chair respectively. Sanjay Nath and David Jarvis continued their roles as treasurer and vice treasurer. Greg Burke continued his role as Secretary throughout 2011/12.

It was agreed that honorarium’s would be offered to Chair of £1000 for the year’s commitment of work, with Treasurer and Vice Chair receiving £500 per annum.

North East Regional LPC

Regional PSNC member, Mark Burdon, attended 1 LPC meeting. The chair and secretary met with their counterparts from neighbouring LPCs at quarterly meetings of the North East Regional LPC.

Employed Members

Brian Morgan continued to provide consultancy services to the LPC throughout the year. Greg Burke remained Secretary until he resigned in April 2013 with a new structure being mapped out and replacement forming the role of Chief Officer at a greater time commitment. The post was advertised in June 2013. Still to be recruited will be an administration assistant.

Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLPs)

Launch to Pharmacies was carried out in early part of the financial year with public launch taking place on 3rd September 2012. 17 pharmacies were included in the initial Pilot Wave 1 group. 5 Redcar and Cleveland, 4 Middlesbrough, 3 Hartlepool and 5 Stockton on Tees were included following a strict set of criteria assessed by Public Health Improvement Leads, Medicines Management Lead and HLP Project Manager. The finance for the project was managed by the Tees LPC with employment of HLP Project Manager being a large part of the funding provided. Following a successful first 6 months Public Health invested further time and funds in the extension of the project for a further year up to March 2014. CHASE evaluation will be due for release September 2013 with some detailed Qualitative outcomes.

Service Development

Although the many changes within the NHS structure and financial management remain largely still in the process of assimilating new services remained a key priority with a new commissioned flu service on a very small scale with very strict parameters implemented across the locality. Discussions continue regarding Healthy Start Vitamins and their use on a voucher scheme for implementation through local authority commissioning in the coming year. Other services remain on hold currently pending allocation of resources and further discussion.

Sexual Health Services

Assura in collaboration with the LPC have drafted a proposal and carried out training to deliver a more refined and financially recognised service incorporating Chlamydia testing and also via a PGD Chlamydia treatment. This has been slow to progress due to Assura internal legalities but the LPC continue to drive this agenda forward on behalf of contractors.

LPC Newsletters

The LPC continue to produce its Newsletter on a bi monthly basis; they can be viewed on the Newsletters section of the LPC website.

LPC Administration

The committee continues to meet bi monthly during the day with details of all meetings available on the LPC website.

Subcommittees are in place encompassing Finance, Strategy, Contracts and any other nominated group depending on the needs of the LPC at any time. The reporting mechanism back to the LPC offers an additional measure of information and comment if deemed appropriate.

At its meeting in January 2013 the committee agreed on a more streamlined ‘trading name’ of ‘Tees LPC’ with the addition of the strapline ‘Pharmacy – The Heart of our Community’ Logo to be included on all correspondence.

The change in ‘trading name’ has been a constitutional change.

Finance

At the beginning of the accounting period the LPC had £91,000 in the bank with the finance subcommittee producing a detailed budget for the year which was then approved by the LPC. Throughout the year the LPC controlled costs and made cost efficiencies where possible as in previous years with industry sponsorship for events and LPC meetings. As a result of the efficiencies and management of the finances the LPC ended the year ahead of budget with a balance of £82,000. There are funds which are allocated to Projects and were given to the LPC for their specified use an example being the IT funding for EPSR roll out. Full details of the accounts for 2012/2013 are included as an Appendix to this report.

Sandie Hall

Redheugh House

Thornaby Place

Thornaby

Stockton on Tees TS17 6SG