Call to save GP dispensing

12.00.00am GMT Mon 24th Nov 2008

More opposition has been raised today to proposals which could see dispensing services cut at many doctors' surgeries across the county.

In Norfolk a number of specialist bodies including the local Medical Committee, the local Pharmaceutical Committee and Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee have already challenged Government proposals to change the rules governing which doctors can dispense drugs.

Now Norfolk County Council has also added its voice to the growing chorus of objectors, following a successful bid from Liberal Democrats to win support for the cause at a meeting today.

The decision means that the Council will write to local MPs and the Minister of State for Public Health to register the Council's opposition to the proposed change to GP dispensing rules and to ask them to press the Department of Health to withdraw this part of the white paper proposals.

Cllr Jacky Howe, who is Liberal Democrat spokesperson for health and social care issues at the Council, and who put forward the motion today to object to the Government's proposed rule change, said:

"Research shows that Norfolk would be hit harder by this proposal than many other parts of the country and that the area which I represent, North Norfolk, would in particular be at risk of losing nearly all of its 18 dispensing practices.

"This proposed change is already being seen by the public as yet another attack on community services from the Government and would create real problems for the most vulnerable in our society: those with mobility issues such as older people, physical disabilities, and also those with no private transport.

"If it is approved it will also remove an important element of choice which would appear to be directly contrary to the Government's stated ethos of patient choice. As elected representatives of Norfolk people I believe we must do everything we can to prevent this disastrous proposal from becoming a reality."

Cllr Fran Pitt-Pladdy, county councillor for the Harleston area, and a co-signatory of the motion, added:

"Some health professionals in my local area are arguing that the funding some surgeries get from NHS Norfolk is inadequate and they need the dispensing income to provide other key services such as blood testing, counselling and minor surgery and that they might be forced to reduce staff numbers if the changes are agreed.

"If these vital local services are lost as a result of this rule change I worry that more patients will be forced to go to hospital for these tests. The Government denies that local surgeries need dispensing income to keep afloat. I hope they are not just using the change as a ruse to try and help provide new funding sources for the controversial polyclinics. I know some MPs have been arguing that they suspect this is the case at the national level."