I will be eating live, according to Gary!
The first part of the debate is around what the quality out there is like
75% of readers responding to our survey said they were "OK", what do you think?
Mike Hewitson, Bearminster Pharmacy contractor says that supply is a quality service. But the debate widens quickly
Hemant Patel, north-east London LPC secretary says there are a lot of playesr on the horizon that could be cheaper, quicker and better than pharmacy at dispensing and delivering services
Jay Badenhorst, Whitworth Chemists superintendent pharmacist half agrees, but says pharmacy is already delivering much better services and more efficient supply
Roshni Simmonds, Rowlands pharmacist says that GPs aren't a massive danger as they are also really time pressed and don't have the unique training that pharmacists do.
Hemant Patel, north-east London LPC secretary asks, what if there is a pharmacy in a GP surgery
But Jay disagrees, asking why a pharmacist in a GP surgery couldn't still carry out pharmacy services such as MURs, NMS etc
Jonathan Mason says that the NHS wants to move towards the GPs focusing on what they are good at and pharmacists focusing on their core strengths
Ajit Malhi, AAH Pharmaceuticals head of marketing asks who will determine what the quality should be at a local level given the fragmentation in the NHS. the danger is 250 different standards
Nick Hunter, Doncaster, Rotherham and Nottinghmashire LPCs chief executive
says a pharmacy with a well trained pharmacy team is key to the success of services and let the pharmacist step away from the nuts and bolts of dispensing
Mike Hewitson, Bearminster Pharmacy contractor says ultimately that patients will decide with their feet whether a pharmacy is good enough or not
But Nick Hunter warns that the problem is that most patients don't know what their pharmacy can offer beyond a prescription and that there are some terrible pharmacies out there
Jonathan Mason says inevitably it will down to commissioning boards to ecide what quality will look like
67% of repondents to our survey say they have delivered a service at a lower quality than they would have liked
Julie Evason, Health Diagnostics managing director says that there are too many excuses to why services weren't delivered
Hemant Patel, north-east London LPC secretary says defining quality is only defined in one dimension and how to achieve it is never properly explained to contractors, with no examples given. He says academia and the RPS should be defining it
Joseph Bush makes two points 1) the separation between contractors and pharmacists and 2) regional variation