Key Challenge 2
Service Development

To add value to the NHS by developing new and improved services that support the modernisation of the service.


Key Outcome for Stakeholders
We will continue to develop comprehensive, accessible services that meet the current and emerging needs of users. There will be tailored services delivered on-line and a version of ePACT.net for GPs.

Introduction
The PPA is the guardian of a unique national asset - the NHS national information repository covering products prescribed and dispensed in primary care.

The maintenance within the NHS of this central data processing and feedback capability is important to the achievement of the Government's objectives for the NHS. It provides for consistency of application of reimbursement and remuneration rules and enables changes in those rules to be implemented independently from the commercial market place for pharmaceuticals. It also ensures consistent information is available at national and local levels so that prescribing and dispensing trends and costs can be used and managed by healthcare professionals to the benefit of their patients. Our services to prescribers, dispensers and patients revolve around this information-hub.

We recognise that the national repository covering products prescribed and dispensed in primary care is of great importance to the NHS. As PitF is implemented, we will seek to maintain and enhance the quality and coverage of prescribing information available to the NHS through implementing appropriate changes to its prescribing information services.

Where we are developing new and improved services, we will monitor the progress of their implementation against pre-defined project milestones, planned outcomes and overall project cost targets.

Improving Services to Prescribers and Those Managing Prescribing
Our core information services provide electronic prescribing management information that enable PCTs/StHAs to performance manage poor prescribing practice and adverse trends and to manage prescribing costs. These are currently delivered electronically at national, regional, local and practice levels.

We will continue to improve the mechanisms for delivery and support of our prescribing information services. We will take steps to ensure that our prescribing information services are user focussed and available to those who need them within the NHS. This will include the rollout of ePACT.net for GP practices. This will provide monthly information and will form their prime method for analysing their own prescribing costs and trends.

To enable PCTs to monitor contractor compliance with Local
Pharmaceutical Schemes (LPS) contract terms, we have made dispensing management information available to PCTs electronically. We will develop services to further support LPS locally and to provide information to individual contractors.

We will continue to promote the use of these services through exhibitions, workshops and other means. Increasingly, we will provide prescribing cost and trend information electronically through our Web Site rather than on paper. We will also provide training and assistance to users of our services to support them in the effective management of prescribing.

Improving Prescribing Trend Data
We will enhance the prescribing trend information provided to the NHS by the addition of appropriate information to enable those responsible for managing prescribing to target their efforts on:

• eliminating inappropriate prescribing practice; and
• promoting clinically effective prescribing in support of improved patient care.

We will incorporate relevant outcomes from prescribing and drug
utilisation analyses and research projects into the PPA's prescribing information services and, make our reports on prescribing trends available on our Web Site.

Improving Prescribing Cost Data
We will continue to provide prescribing cost data to responsible NHS bodies. In consultation with our stakeholders, we will review the information required to enable local forecasting of prescribing budgets. We will examine whether alternative arrangements for providing meaningful management information, which empowers effective local management of prescribing budgets, should be made available in place of the current reports, to complement the actions we have taken already to improve access to this information on-line.

Improving Services to Dispensers - Enabling Innovations in Pharmacy
A number of initiatives are being enabled by the DH, which will influence the nature, volume and complexity of prescriptions issued under the NHS and the range of data that may need to be reflected in our prescribing information services.

Changes are planned to the national contractual framework for community pharmacies. LPS Pilots will explore diverse schemes of payment for services delivered by community pharmacies. Prescribing responsibilities will be further extended to new groups of professionals. More nurses will become 'independent prescribers'. Changing 'Out of Hours' services will generate additional information flows. Repeat dispensing will be fully rolled-out to allow patients to obtain prescriptions from their GPs, which they can then have dispensed in several instalments, reducing
the administrative burden on the prescriber.

Through consultation with our stakeholders, we will identify the effect that supporting the introduction of these initiatives will have on our services. Changes may affect:

• the volume and complexity of standard prescriptions to be processed;
• the reimbursement and remuneration rules to be applied to contractor accounts; or
• the sources of data to our Prescribing Information Services, which do not come from the traditional FP10 prescription route.

We will continue to develop the means for the Drug Tariff to be made available in a customer-focussed electronic form, probably over the Internet, so that transparency of prices and the reimbursement and remuneration rules can be achieved. This will complement the roll-out of the NHS PCDD so that information, describing products that are prescribable within the NHS, can accompany information on the means by which those products are priced.

Through providing a central channel for local and national payments and for prescribing information services, we aim to reduce the need for local bureaucracy and to be able to provide the consequential comprehensive management information services.

Improving Services to Patients
We currently provide services to patients through the management of both the NHS LIS and the issue of Pre-payment, MEDEX and MATEX certificates.

During the period of this strategy, we shall seek to improve the management of the schemes we operate by extending the types of activity we undertake. We will improve the accessibility of these services in line with the goals set out for 'Modernising Government'. We will proactively gather information to ensure that individuals who are entitled to help with and advice on health costs receive it. At the individual level, we intend to improve accessibility to our enquiry and advice services, including new means of contacting the organisation, ensuring that calls are answered promptly, queries are settled on the first call and customers are delighted with our response.

We will work to manage the impact of the introduction of tax credits on health benefits to ensure that these are delivered efficiently and effectively. We will administer efficiencies between these schemes to maximise the benefits of their smooth operation for the NHS. In addition, we intend to improve the transparency of our services, both by explaining assessments under the LIS and by allowing open access to our working methods and processing timescales.

We also undertake to compare our customer interface with other benefit organisations to identify areas for service enhancements, whilst backing these changes with value for money improvements driven by process changes and use of new technology.

Shared Service Provision
We currently provide a range of human resource and financial support services to other NHS organisations, including the Modernisation Agency (NHSMA) and the NHS University (NHSU). We will respond positively to further requests to provide such support services where the arrangement is mutually beneficial to both parties and where appropriate governance, accountability and employment issues can be accommodated and can be balanced with our baseline responsibilities.

We provide prescribing information to NHS bodies working with national
data sets and to trusted partners of the NHS. We will build on the relationships we have with, among others, National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Drug Safety Research Unit to facilitate access to this information for those who can benefit from it.

We will develop the managed services we currently provide. We will also continue to work with the DH and other stakeholders to identify opportunities to add value to the NHS by taking on new managed services that would benefit from centralisation to achieve consistency of application, consistent levels of control and quality and economies of scale.

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