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Events
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7/8/2010
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Enterprising Conference
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The CAMRx Conference at the Oakley Court Hotel in picturesque Windsor brought together some of the most influential figures in pharmacy to ponder the evolving role of “The Entrepreneurial Pharmacist.” Pharmacy Business attended the event to get a flavour of the debate…
Rajni Hindocha, managing director of CAMRx , kick-started the programme with a lecture entitled ‘Current Issues and PCT and World Class Commissioning,’ which encompassed current issues in pharmacy, such as PNA (Pharmacy Needs Assessment), Quality Indicators - rewards system, Information Governance, PCT monitoring visit and PCT and World Class Commissioning.
His reviewed the ways in which CAMRx’s 330 members can extract extra government funding and looked at how CAMRx can help them gain contracts in an ever competitive marketplace.
Hindocha mulled over subjects such as procurement basics, the procurement process and contract award, going on to confront issues including commissioning, competition and tendering. His portion of the programme also incorporated a section entitled ‘PCT Commissioning Cycle’ which he broke down into four sub-sections; Analyse (segmentation, analysis, prioritisation), Plan (project team, care pathway, market analysis, intervention strategy, stake holder testing and approval), Action (service design, contracting and tendering and implement change) and Review (manage provider, post-implementation review).
The PCT Procurement Process segment of his talk looked at defining and executing appropriate strategies to secure the most efficient and effective services that represent the best value, establishing the most efficient chains to deliver services, ensuring effective outcomes and ensuring compliance with EU legislation. There was also a consideration of NHS competition, its definition and why there is competition. On the issue of tendering, there was a look at tendering decisions, AWP (any willing provider) and the limitations of AWP.
Mike Dent, head of finance at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, made a presentation entitled ‘Contractors In Peril – analysing errors and payments.’ His talk homed in on topics such as national funding; the Cost of Service Inquiry, Margins Survey, 2010/11 funding, devolving global sum and new funding models. He also looked at how capacity improvement programmes (CIP) work and where pricing errors can occur, what a pharmacy contractor can do to minimise errors, how to read and make use of an FP34 and the national actions to address prescription issues. He detailed how the CIP, introduced in 2007, now process all prescriptions from English pharmacy contractors and looked at high speed scanning equipment. There was also an analysis of intelligent character recognition software (ICR), how captured information is processed through the ‘rules engine’ to determine payment and how some prescriptions are passed to the ‘exception handler’ (human intervention).
On the subject of ICRs he found that handwritten prescriptions can pose the software problems and his slides suggested that it “does not review endorsement” columns. He proposed a range of measures to remedy sorting problems and address high price, high impact errors, such as sort prescriptions for broken bulk, sort items with a NIC of £100 or more and sort “specials”, including items with additional information. His talk also focused on what can be done to help the pricing process and avoid pricing errors. The fees and allowances earned by the pharmacy contractor was given consideration and Dent similarly looked at how practice payments can be determined by the Dispensing Staff level declaration. He pondered how Average Item Values (AIV) are influenced by certain factors, including product mix, expensive item fluctuations, ZD mix, the number of items dispensed and practice payment levels.
Arthur Daines, CAMRx associate director, issued a lecture on teaching staff to reach their potential, revolving around seven principles; Getting staff to be responsible for their own destiny and outcomes, teaching them the idea that everything happens for a reason and a purpose can serve them, that there is no failure only learning, that things do not improve by accident rather through action, that commitment is the key to excellence, that work is fun and that people are truly the greatest resource. His talk also focused on the art of communication, conversation, assertion and aggression, with a 10-point plan to motivation.
Community pharmacist, Gam Amar, supplemented the debate about the entrepreneurial pharmacist by delving into areas such as their typical characteristics (vision, creativity, courage, self-confidence, self-control, good health, sense of urgency), the ability to manage staff (with incentives), cash flow (the bank balance is a pharmacist‘s truth - know it and respond to it), set goals and manage customer expectations. The entrepreneurial pharmacist should possess “a new venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and outcome” and “identify a market opportunity and exploit it by organising their resources.” His conclusion was that the entrepreneurial pharmacist should have the motto ‘you make a living 9-5, I make a living after 5.’
To see a video of the conference, visit http://video214.co/play/BSduDbZoE2WCuIH61x1nZQ/s/dark
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