Scottish pharmacists receive extra IT funding

Pharmacists in Scotland are to receive £500 in the latest round of IT funding to prepare for the launch of their new contract in April 2006.

The Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) has announced that every pharmacy contractor will receive £500 towards the cost of installing software to run an electronic minor ailment service.

It will be mandatory for pharmacists in Scotland to run an electronic minor ailments service, unlike in England where it is an optional enhanced service.

Scottish pharmacists have already received £450 to pay for upgrading of patient medication record systems in preparation for the new contract and the Executive says all Scottish pharmacists will be linked to N3, funded by the SEHD, by the end of the year.

The minor ailments service is one of four core parts of the community pharmacy contract in Scotland. Two of the other core elements are a chronic medication service and an acute medication service, both of which will involve electronic transmission of prescriptions. The fourth core element is a public health service (PHS).

The SEHD has agreed with the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council that the contract will be phased in from April 2006, in line with the availability of the e-infrastructure to support each of the core elements.

The Scottish Executive says in its latest guidance that the minor ailments service and public health service will be implemented from April next year with the acute and chronic medication services fully operational from April 2007.

The SEHD also announced that it will recruit practising community pharmacists to act as practitioner champions to support the introduction of the contract.

Links

Latest guidance on implementation of the pharmacy contract
Funding announcement