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Cholesterol

Answer

New community pharmacy contractual arrangements provide the framework for pharmacy to make a positive contribution to tackling key health priorities such as obesity and coronary heart disease and to improving the health of the public, including where health inequalities persist.Some pharmacies offer blood pressure testing, cholesterol testing or a range of other screening tests. Such testing should be in accordance with relevant national screening guidelines, where they exist, and in line with local primary care trust (PCT) programmes for prevention and management of risk factors and with robust quality assurance processes.We published ““Choosing Health through Pharmacy— A programme for pharmaceutical public health”” in April 2005, which aims to maximise the contribution of pharmacists, their staff and the premises in which they work to improve health and reduce health inequalities. This strategy will enable pharmacists and their staff to make better use of their skills and it will open up opportunities for pharmacy to make a bigger difference to improving the health of people in England. PCTs can commission local enhanced services to meet identified health needs.Although we do not hold details centrally on the number of pharmacists planning to offer health checks or the numbers of such checks, we have developed an assurance framework for PCTs to use in monitoring pharmacy's implementation of new contractual requirements, and also strategic tests for strategic health authorities to monitor how PCTs are using the new framework to deliver key health priorities and objectives locally.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

36763; 440 c2693-4W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Health Pharmacy Screening