| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Lammy: As I have said, these plans—outlining the way in which we are moving forward with pharmacies—have been outlined in "Pharmacy in the Future", and hospitals are getting around them around the country. There is clearly a financial imperative in the right hon. and learned Gentleman's local context. He has discussed that; I have outlined it. That, however, is not the only issue. Clearly, the fact that only 19,000 prescriptions are given a year will have a bearing on how those services are configured. What must be right is that patients in the Royal Victoria get access to the right pharmacy services. The local trust believes that this proposal will give them access to that, improve services and meet the desire to see the deficit reduced. That must
be about balance, and about fiscal accountability. It is right that the local economy should have that discussion.Such proposals are also taking shape in other parts of the country. The West Middlesex University hospital provides a pharmacy service to Teddington Memorial hospital, which has around 60 health care for the elderly beds. Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust provides a medicines supply and clinical pharmacy service to Berwick infirmary and four other small hospitals. The clinical service at Berwick is provided in part by community pharmacists who review patients' medication prior to discharge as part of an LPS—local pharmaceutical services—pilot. Cumberland infirmary provides supply and clinical services to a smaller hospital with medical and care for the elderly beds.
Pharmacy services can be, and are being, configured in different ways in different parts of the country. This accords with the needs of smaller hospitals, and it is right and proper that individual trusts should look at those needs and make their own assessments. I want to emphasise that it is for them to make their own assessments locally; it is not for me to stand here and say what is right or wrong about what they say. The right hon. and learned Gentleman says that he disagrees with his trust's decision, and that is his right. But, in a sense, that is his subjective analysis of the information with which he has been provided.
In conclusion, we have provided—
Mr. Howard: The Minister is very generous to give way again. He has suggested that he is reaching his
conclusion, but he has not yet touched on the VAT anomaly. I hope that he will say something about that before he sits down.
Mr. Lammy: The right hon. and learned Gentleman is quite right to pick me up on that point. There is a situation in which European Community law and the way in which VAT is configured in this country affect hospital services in this way. He has written to the Chancellor on this matter, and I will undertake to work with him to consider it, and to see whether I can write to the right hon. and learned Gentleman about it. I understand that the matter has come up and that it affects pharmacies in particular. As the Minister responsible, it is something that I want to take an interest in.
We have provided record resources for the NHS, but it must be for primary care trusts to decide how that money is spent, and—in conjunction with local stakeholders—how services should be delivered. I can understand that the pharmacy's closure might set alarm bells ringing locally, but I have been assured that whatever the future of pharmacy services at the Royal Victoria hospital, patients will continue to receive the very best care. A high standard of pharmaceutical services will still be provided.
Stephen Cook, the trust's director of pharmacy, has himself said:
- "I will not shut the door on the Royal Victoria Hospital pharmacy until I am sure the service in place meets the needs of all our patients. We would not do it if it was going to have a detrimental effect".
- Adjourned accordingly at Eight o'clock.
| Index | Home Page |