I received the following letter last week from NHS. Please reply to the consultation (form can be found at bottom of page) if you currently collect or are eligible to collect your prescriptions from Skene Medical Group.

“Dear Colleague,

Review of dispensing GP practices at Auchenblae, Gardenstown, Portlethen,

Rhynie, Skene and Udny Station.

I am writing to inform you that NHS Grampian is to conduct a review of six

dispensing GP practices. This review includes a public consultation which will run

from 4 July to 1 October 2016. The GP practices are Auchenblae, Gardenstown,

Portlethen, Rhynie, Skene and Udny Station.

Following the review of dispensing by the Haddo Medical Group completed in 2015,

the Grampian NHS Board accepted a recommendation to conduct a review of

general practice dispensing across Grampian. This review would assure the Board

that, where a Medical Practice has been required to dispense, this is in line with

existing regulations.

The review is triggered by the need to make sure that the Board is continuing to act

legally in requiring these GP Practices to dispense for their patients. The Board can

only legally require a practice to dispense for patients who have a “serious difficulty”

in accessing prescribed medicines and appliances from a pharmacy. The term

serious difficulty is not defined but the Board can consider the distance to the

nearest community pharmacy, issues of communication and other exceptional

circumstances.

The review will therefore seek to determine which patients of each of the associated

practices continue to have serious difficulty in accessing prescribed medicines and

appliances from a pharmacy. The review will also seek to establish the overall

impact of any potential changes on the practices involved with the aim of ensuring

sustainability and a cross-system approach.

Please find enclosed an information sheet about the consultation. I would like to

draw your attention to 6b on page 3 regarding how to respond to this consultation.

The form on page 5 is for individual patient responses. If you would like more copies

of the information sheet and/or patient response forms, please contact the Public

Involvement Team on 01224 558098 who will be happy to provide these.

The closing date for all responses is 1 October 2016.

More details can also be found at:

www.nhsgrampian.org/involvingyou and by clicking on ‘Projects and

Consultations’.

Thank you for reading this letter.

Yours faithfully

Laura Gray

Director of Corporate Communications and Board Secretary”

Consultation sheet for patients-public FINAL (3)