miércoles, 3 de diciembre de 2008

que es virtual pcg









Virtual PCG board sees pharmacy's vision fulfilled in 2009
A book setting out a vision of how primary care will look in 2009 in the eyes of a "virtual" primary care group board sees all of pharmacy's current ambitions fulfilled within 10 years. Published by the King's Fund, the book contains contributions from each member of a hypothetical PCG board, according to their areas of expertise. One of the contributors is Mr Colin Baldwin (pharmacy development controller, Boots the Chemist), who, looking back at pharmacy practice from 2009 to the present day, describes his amazement at the minor role played by the profession in 1999. "Thinking back, it was the creation of PCGs and the re-engineering of primary and social care that provided the opportunity for community pharmacists to become partners in the planning and delivery of health care for the community," Mr Baldwin writes. "Until then, it had not been appreciated that community pharmacists were not just experts in medicines, but also had the natural ability to work with GPs to ensure that maximum benefit was obtained from medicines. In those days, nobody would have imagined the way in which pharmacists now manage the medication for a PCG's patients. Nobody could have imagined the savings in drug costs, reductions in secondary care referrals and the improvements in outcomes which are now commonplace." As well as imagining that the profession's medicines management ambition has been fulfilled, Mr Baldwin takes for granted from the perspective of 2009 the business input of community pharmacists into PCGs and the usefulness of the insight into local communities that they bring to primary care planning. He remarks on how, in 1999, community pharmacists had no computer links with general medical practitioners and prescriptions were written on paper, even though smart cards, store cards and cashless transactions were commonplace. Mr Baldwin also writes of the role he sees pharmacists playing in health promotion in 2009. He says: "I remember, back in the past century, it being recognised that community pharmacists had daily access to most of the women in the population and through them to their families. It took the formation of PCGs and the focus on local planning of primary care delivery to realise the value of such access in terms of health promotion and health education." Mr Baldwin also describes how community pharmacists prescribe on the National Health Service for minor ailments, provide repeat prescriptions for chronic conditions, set up NHS walk-in centres and work alongside nurses on NHS Direct telephone help lines. Concluding, Mr Baldwin foresees recognition, through PCGs, of the private investment that supports community pharmacy in the NHS. He concludes: "It was only when primary care trusts were formed and opportunities created to consider alternative mechanisms for supplying pharmaceutical services that the true value of the community pharmacy network came to be realised." The book was commissioned by New Health Network, which describes itself as a broad coalition of individuals and corporate supporters strongly committed to modernising the NHS. The introduction to the book invites comments on the "visions" it contains and the contribution of further visions. A commitment to distribute them via the www.newhealthnetwork.co.uk website is given. "Visions of primary care", New Health Network, 165a Mermaid Court, Borough High Street, London SE1H 1HH (tel 0121 232 3600, e-mail coordinator@newhealthnetwork.co.uk).
Reprinted from the Pharmaceutical Journal, October 30, 1999, p699.

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