PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe (pictured) has labelled NHS England's plans for dispensing hubs to process two thirds of prescriptions as "madness".

Speaking at yesterday's LPC conference in Birmingham, Mrs Sharpe criticised the plan's lack of forethought and questioned its possible alterior motives. "As far as I know this hasn’t been tested or explored. There’s an implicit assumption that it would provide an acceptable level of care and we’ve seen no evidence of that. Is it an attack on the pharmacy network to make it simply a distributor? It’s worrying and we need to make sure we understand it and support community pharmacies."

In the US, around 20 per cent of prescriptions were dispensed from hubs, but that figure had now plateaued, said Mrs Sharpe. With its much smaller land area, it seemed unlikely that England would achieve higher levels.

Mrs Sharpe also criticised the lack of innovative thinking from NHS England in relation to pharmacy, particularly while the NHS was in such dire straits. "Simon Stevens’ transformation rhetoric is starting to look to me like nothing but rhetoric. It’s immensely frustrating but we’ve got to work together at local and national levels to make sure pharmacy keeps delivering the best quality care to patients."

It remained unclear why NHS England failed to commission a national pharmacy minor ailments scheme, particularly in light of detailed negotations with PSNC on the matter, nor whether negotiations would resume, although NHSE must appreciate the potential benefits. "They would be mad if they don’t seek to ensure that they use the skills of community phamacists to relieve pressure on GPs. They have no other solution."