Pharmacy Brief - June 2015

Tendering for Public Health Services

When public health services are put out to tender, it is important that the commissioner is fair, transparent and sticks to its own rules for scoring. We recently acted for clients whose bids to provide supervised consumption and other services were unsuccessful. We pointed out a number of deficiencies to the local authority, and the local authority agreed to re-run the tender without the need for our clients to go to court. Anyone aggrieved by a procurement decision will only have days to challenge it so it is essential to seek legal advice urgently.

POM supplies by Public Health England

The Department of Health has amended the Human Medicines Regulations to enable Public Health England to supply prescription only medicines under a patient group direction. The Department did not carry out a full impact assessment as it considered there would be no, or no significant, impact on the sector.

Data Protection

The Information Commissioner's Office is looking hard at the health sector because sensitive personal data is used, and heavy fines can be imposed...