Barnsley LPC Newsletter – January 2013 Happy New Year! This should be the first and hopefully last paper version of the LPC newsletter you receive this year. LPC Communication Strategy In the future we would like to communicate with contractors using a variety of media. The newsletter will be available by email only. Email is obviously faster, more efficient and considerably cheaper than using the postal service. Email also allows a wider distribution list, so area managers, head offices, locums, ACT’s and technicians can all be included should they wish to sign up. Email can also be stored for retrieval later, so there will be less bits of paper cluttering up the dispensary. I would be grateful if you could email your preferred contact details to: [email protected]As has already been mentioned this is open to anyone working within pharmacy in the Barnsley area. The LPC has considered using Facebook and Twitter as a means of keeping contractors up to date. There is a short survey available through the link below which I would be grateful if you could complete www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZHP8RC . In common with other LPC’s we are currently dividing our area into small clusters which will have an LPC member acting as a local contact point. The LPC members will be expected to establish and keep in regular contact with a group of about 5 or 6 pharmacies. This should hopefully improve communication and may alleviate concerns over the coming months with the wholesale changes in the NHS.
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Barnsley LPC Newsletter – January 2013
Happy New Year! This should be the first and hopefully last paper version of the LPC newsletter you receive this year.
LPC Communication Strategy
In the future we would like to communicate with contractors using a variety of media. The newsletter will be available by email only. Email is obviously faster, more efficient and considerably cheaper than using the postal service. Email also allows a wider distribution list, so area managers, head offices, locums, ACT’s and technicians can all be included should they wish to sign up. Email can also be stored for retrieval later, so there will be less bits of paper cluttering up the dispensary.
I would be grateful if you could email your preferred contact details to:
As has already been mentioned this is open to anyone working within pharmacy in the Barnsley area.
The LPC has considered using Facebook and Twitter as a means of keeping contractors up to date. There is a short survey available through the link below which I would be grateful if you could complete
www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZHP8RC
.
In common with other LPC’s we are currently dividing our area into small clusters which will have an LPC member acting as a local contact point. The LPC members will be expected to establish and keep in regular contact with a group of about 5 or 6 pharmacies. This should hopefully improve communication and may alleviate concerns over the coming months with the wholesale changes in the NHS.
NHS Changes
The NHS is undergoing major structural changes – “So big you can see them from space” (Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the English NHS).
The consequences are far reaching and have led to much angst and uncertainty and as we approach the end of PCT’s on 31st March 2013 it is still unclear what the future will look like. The LPC have tried over the last two years to work with commissioners to make the changeover as smooth and painless as possible for contractors, however it is difficult to secure the future of a service when no one knows who will commission it. We have been given repeated reassurances that all local commissioned services through pharmacy will be remain until at least 31st March 2014. We do not anticipate that services will be decommissioned, but they may undergo a redesign.
Part of the need for the communication strategy outlined above is the probability that things will start to happen very quickly in the next few months and to preserve service to patients it is important that contractors are informed of changes as soon as possible. It is also vital that the LPC is made aware of any changes that you are aware of that may adversely effect the service you give your patients. Examples include a change to prescribing practices, problems with internet connectivity, difficulty in reading EPS bar coded scripts.
Extraordinary General Meeting of the LPC
The changes in the NHS will require the LPC to amend it’s constitution. This will require an EGM, probably toward the end of February (date to be confirmed).
In the meantime I would be grateful if you could email your contact details to
