Insight Online – March 2024

PDA responds to DHSC consultation on supervision

After careful consideration of the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC’s) proposals regarding pharmacy supervision, we have responded to the consultation.

This consultation will have a significant impact on the pharmacy practice, so we used our members’ experiences, a significant casework pool, feedback from dedicated member events, and extensive scrutiny with the support of legal counsel to form our comprehensive response.

Because of the large number of caveats, we could neither agree nor disagree with many of the proposals but believe that, should they be accepted by the government, the result would be a welcome development.

PDA highlights several significant matters to the Health and Social Care Committee

Following on from the oral evidence provided to the Health and Social Care select committee’s pharmacy inquiry in January 2024, we have submitted written supplementary evidence which highlights a number of emerging but highly significant matters that our members are facing at work.

These issues include under-staffing, the introduction of the Pharmacy First Service, the recent pharmacy supervision consultation, and more.

PDA secures important safeguards for members in the NHS Pension Scheme

In November last year, we responded to the government consultation on potential changes to the NHS Pension Scheme. The details of our response can be found here.

As a result of the points we made, the government has now withdrawn proposals that would have seen more NHS pharmacists paying higher pension contributions.

The full government response can be found here.