Political Editor UK General Election 2010 - Local MP fighting to maintain GP dispensaries

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Local MP fighting to maintain GP dispensaries

Pharmacy White Paper is a Bill Too Bitter to Swallow: Salter backs Patients in their Fight to Maintain GP Dispensaries

Photo of Martin Salter MP with Yvonne Brown (dispenser), Dr Mike Powell, and Adam Turner of the Boathouse Surgery, Pangbourne.

Martin Salter, MP for Reading West, has written to Minister of State Dawn Primarolo at the Department of Health highlighting his concerns about the proposed Pharmacy in England White Paper and its potentially destructive impact on patient’s abilities to collect their medication quickly and efficiently.

During his visit to the Boathouse Surgery in Pangbourne on Friday December 6th, Mr Salter met with Dr Michael Powell, Adam Turner and dispenser Yvonne Brown to listen to concerns surrounding the proposed change to dispensing rules. The current system, which allows GP’s surgeries to dispense medicines to patients, benefits in particular those who live in rural areas and those suffering from limited mobility. The planned legislation would mean that patients and their families may have to undergo two journeys; the first to attend their doctor’s appointment, and the second to collect their prescribed treatment.

In his letter to the Minister, Mr Salter states:-

“Currently patients who live more than a mile from a chemist can choose to have their medicines dispensed by their GP, thereby removing the need to make an additional journey. This system has worked well for almost a century and I can see no reason for changing it”.

Dr Michael Powell, a GP at the Boathouse Surgery added:-

“Mr Martin Salter (MP for Reading West) [has] visited the area, to hear the concerns at first hand. Mr Salter spent an hour visiting The Boathouse Surgery in Pangbourne to listen to our concerns. We remain hopeful that the government will maintain the status quo, which will please patients and our dispensing staff, who otherwise might face redundancy”.

Despite many believing that the White Paper offers improvement to various ways in which local healthcare is delivered, it is clear that the public believe the full implementation of the White Paper would be a mistake. Of the patients surveyed by the Boathouse Surgery, all 625 believed that the dispensary service delivered by the Boathouse was “convenient”. One patient commented “I am a patient with severe arthritis. I can manage to drive to the surgery but to walk along to the chemist would be impossible and there is no parking out side”.

Martin Salter is pressing the government to plump for Option One of the White Paper which would ensure the status quo is maintained.

Mr Salter concluded:-

“In my letter to the Minister I mention that of the 625 patients surveyed by Dr Powell and his colleagues, over 95% said they would be ‘extremely upset’ to lose their GP dispensary service. To be quite frank, I am not surprised by this response. From the letters I and the doctors have received, patients throughout Reading value the current way in which they collect their medication. The Pharmacy White Paper does offer several reforms, including the emergence of specialised health clinics within chemist stores, which appear to be very useful and necessary. However, the proposition aimed at the dismantling of the GP’s ability to dispense treatments from their surgeries is not justified and will inconvenience a very large number of people in our area”.

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