What has relaxation of control of entry done for equality of access for patients?

摘要

A vital element of primary care trust development of pharmaceutical needs assessment is identifying community pharmacy locations and the availability of services provided by community pharmacists. Under a broad primary care agenda of reducing health inequalities, the challenge for PCTs is to provide equal access to effective pharmaceutical services for local populations with different levels of healthcare needs. Changes in how and where community pharmacies locate through control-of-entry regulations over the past two decades have increased this challenge for healthcare planners. Relaxation of control-of-entry regulations in England led to an increase of 397 community pharmacies between 2005 and 2007, the first substantial growth in a decade. However, where many of the new pharmacies were located was out of PCT control, driven by market and financial imperatives, outwith structured healthcare planning.