The petition of residents of the constituency of Rugby,
Declares that the local pharmacy in Binley Woods is a lifeline and hub to more than 3,000 residents; and further that it is deplorable that NHS England and NHS Improvement, midlands region, have decided to remove the local pharmaceutical services (LPS) contract from the pharmacy.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to work with NHS England and reverse this decision, and to ensure that the pharmacy can continue to provide medical, wellbeing and social care for both the young and elderly population within Binley Woods and the adjacent villages.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Mark Pawsey, Official Report, 2 December 2020; Vol. 685, c. 377.]
[P002631]
Observations from TheUnder-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (Jo Churchill):
To be able to provide NHS pharmaceutical services, a community pharmacy must either be included in the pharmaceutical list, which means a standard pharmacy contract is in place, or have been commissioned under a local pharmaceutical services (LPS) contract. Decisions, on inclusion in the pharmaceutical list or to commission LPS contracts, are a matter for NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE-I). The Department of Health and Social Care does however work in partnership with NHSE-I and local authorities to ensure that the legislation and commissioning bodies continue to ensure patient access to pharmaceutical services, as is required by the National Health Service Act 2006.
The local pharmacy in Binley Woods currently holds an LPS contract. LPS contracts are commissioned locally and designed to allow a pharmacy to deliver specific services for their local population and customers. Such contracts are often put in place where the number of prescription items that a pharmacy dispenses is not high enough to support a standard pharmacy contract, but where a specific need for the local population has been identified.
The LPS contract held by the local pharmacy in Binley Woods expired on 31 March 2020. The pharmacy was then given six months’ notice to terminate. In September 2020, the pharmacy applied for an extension to the LPS contract but did not provide evidence of specific needs in the local population to provide the additional services that NHSE-I would expect to see under an LPS contract. The decision by NHSE-I not to extend the contract was not appealed by the pharmacy. Instead, the pharmacy has now applied to be included in the pharmaceutical list. NHSE-I have extended the LPS contract until 28 February 2021 to enable the processing of the application for inclusion in the pharmaceutical list. This application, if approved, would enable the pharmacy to continue to provide community pharmacy services under a standard pharmacy contract.