£12m investment package for pharmacies (FOI)

Request

In March 2023 it was announced by the Government that there was a £12 million boost to help and recruit and develop new services in pharmacies.   Please provide the following information:

A

How much of this £12 million has been spent? 

B

What has the amount in question A above been spent on? 

C

How many pharmacists have been trained to become prescribers so far for this £12m? 

D

To date, how many pharmacists are booked on, and confirmed to attend, training to become prescribers in 2023, 2024 and 2025? 

E

One aim of the £12m was publicly stated as "reduce the time and cost it takes for islanders to get their repeat prescriptions".  How is this measured and what has at the £12m achieved to date to meet this stated aim? 

F

One aim of the 12milion was publicly stated as "up appointment times in GP practices".  How is this measured and to date, what has at the £12m achieved to meet this stated aim? 

G

One aim of the 12milion was publicly stated as "help other islanders who may need to see their GP more urgently".  How is this measured and to date, what has at the 12 million achieved to meet this stated aim?

H

In the press release, the minister is quoted as saying "Pharmacists being trained today will have the skills to prescribe medicines".  How many of those "Pharmacists being trained" have now qualified and are prescribing in the community tas at today's date? 

I

How many prescribing pharmacists are working in Jersey pharmacies? Please provide the full list. 

J

The stated aim initially was "The first part of the £12m package will be starting this month, and will see islanders who have difficulty taking their prescribed medication supplied with blister packs, reminder charts, advice and GP referrals." How many islanders received medication in blister packs, reminder charts and advice paid for by this £12m?

K

In May, the Minister will also be changing the law so that Islanders can receive prescriptions to cover a longer period. Currently, most medicines can only be prescribed for 30 days before a repeat prescription or GP consultation is required.  Please advise why are surgeries, such as Castle Quay, now only issuing one month at a time, and two post-dated prescriptions instead of 3 months' worth of pills on a single prescription when clinically no-risk? 

L

Do the doctors referred to in question K get paid for each prescription they write? 

M

The package also includes an increase to the fee paid to pharmacies for dispensing medicines.  Please advise what the original fee was, what has it increased to and when did that increase? What mitigations have been pout in place to stop pharmacies attached to doctors' surgeries from artificially increasing the number of prescriptions to further increase their income following the law change to allow repeat prescriptions for longer.

Response 

A

£44, 670 has been verified as spent to date.  Further spend, as yet unverified, will have occurred since 1 May 2023.

B

The Medicines Adherence Service, which is delivered by community pharmacy to assist people to take their medicines as prescribed.

C

None.

D to G

This information is not held by the Government of Jersey. Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

H

This information is not held by the Government of Jersey. Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Modern pharmacy degrees enable pharmacists to prescribe.  Pharmacy degrees are not provided by the Government of Jersey. 

I

The Jersey Care Commission is responsible for the registration of Health and Social Care professionals, details of registrants can be found via the link below. As this information is publicly available on gov.je, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

Jersey health and social care professionals register (gov.je)

J

837. 

K

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 gives a right to request information that is held in recorded form, unless exempt. This request poses a question rather than seeking information held in recorded form. In any event, this information is not held. 

Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

L

The Health Insurance Fund does not pay a prescriber a fee for each prescription they write.  The terms of remuneration of employees in general practices is a matter for those private businesses.

M

The table below shows the fee before the 1st May and the increased fees paid from the 1st May onwards and programmed increases for 2024 and 2025.

Prescriptions in primary care are issued by approved prescribers, mainly GPs.  The British Medical Association offers guidance regarding prescription direction to mitigate against poor practice. Further details can be found via the link below. 

Prescription direction to certain pharmacies (bma.org.uk)

As part of a General Practitioners registration to practise in Jersey, the GP is required to complete an annual conflict of interest declaration. This declaration reminds the practitioner of the obligations under General Medical Council, specifically;

Honesty in financial dealings

77 You must be honest in financial and commercial dealings with patients, employers, insurers and other organisations or individuals.

78 You must not allow any interests you have to affect the way you prescribe for, treat, refer or commission services for patients.

The Jersey Primary Care Governance Team are able to investigate complaints regarding these matters.

Prescription data can be monitored over time and trends identified. In addition, prescribing practice is monitored, and prescribers are offered individual reviews of their practice.  Prescribing indicators are used as part of their annual revalidation. 

Articles applied 

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding Information

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a) a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b) the authority does not hold the information, it must inform the applicant accordingly.

(2) If a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority and –

(a) the information is absolutely exempt information or qualified exempt information; or

(b) if the authority does not hold the information, the information would be absolutely exempt

information or qualified exempt information if it had held it,the authority may refuse to inform the applicant whether or not it holds the information if it is satisfied that, in all the circumstances of the case, it is in the public interest to do so.

(3) If a scheduled public authority so refuses –

(a) it shall be taken for the purpose of this Law to have refused to supply the information requested on the ground that it is absolutely exempt information; and

(b) it need not inform the applicant of the specific ground upon which it is refusing the request or, if the authority does not hold the information, the specific ground upon which it would have refused the request had it held the information.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.