ABPI looks to draw industry and NHS together

The three principal organisations that represent NHS members and organisations and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), have used a revised framework document to spell out ways in which the pharmaceutical industry can work in co-operation with the NHS.

The new document, 'NHS and Pharmaceutical Industry Working together for Patients', lists more than a dozen case histories that exemplify constructive ways in which the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS have co-operated on projects to the benefit of patients throughout the country. It is being supported by the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC), the NHS Alliance and the NHS Confederation, and will be published by the end of the year, following a major consultation exercise.

The examples of co-operative working given in the report range from implementing national policies or guidelines, such as those on schizophrenia and mental health, to providing a support strategy for flu campaigns. It stresses that all joint activities should be for the benefit of patients and wider populations, and that any agreements between the industry and NHS partners should be conducted in an open and transparent way. Other key provisions include protecting the in-terests of individual patients; keeping clinical aspects of care under NHS control; ensuring that clinicians provide the treatment they consider to be clinically appropriate, while joint working should not be seen as an endorsement or promotion of a specific medicine or technology; and compliance with the ABPI Code of Practice by all pharmaceutical companies, and with NHS, and relevant professional organisations', codes of conduct, by the NHS.

'The modern NHS is changing rapidly,' said Graham Kendall, head of Commercial Relations, NHS Confederation. 'With increased diversity in providers, we need to focus on how services work together.'

Eric McCullough, chief executive, NAPC, said: 'the benefits of working in partnership can be huge. It can result in truly modernised ways of delivering locally sensitive care, which holistically meet the needs of the individual. Plurality of provision is now a major government policy.'