Building trust - and keeping it

In the UK, the government has published guidance promoting partnerships between the National Health Service and the pharma industry in an effort to improve patient care and address patient needs in the changing healthcare landscape.



In the UK, the government has published guidance promoting partnerships between the National Health Service and the pharma industry in an effort to improve patient care and address patient needs in the changing healthcare landscape.

The Department of Health says the new guidance has been designed to provide advice on how primary care trusts, pharma companies and clinicians can work together to design novel solutions to meet the medical needs of a particular patient community. The guidance also aims to inform NHS staff of their main responsibilities when working with the industry and emphasizes accountability and openness.

Health Minister Dawn Primarolo says the government knows that partnerships between the NHS and pharma can bring real benefits to patients and improve patient care.

There are already examples of just how valuable such relationships can prove to be the East Lincolnshire PCT COPD project and the Nottingham PCTs Happy Hearts program offer proof in the pudding of the good that pharma can bring to partnership with primary care trusts.

The new guidance is pivotal, however, because until now, most NHS-industry programs have been based on industry sponsorship rather than true partnerships. While sponsorship has its merits, building true partnerships is better for patients, PCTs and pharma companies. And as Richard Barker, director-general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry tells PharmaTimes, the governments new guidance can only encourage the constructive use of such activity in the UK.

Perhaps most importantly, the guidance offers formal affirmation that pharma has something truly valuable and unmatched to bring to the table: expertise in disease management through the innovative use of prescription medicines to improve patient care and outcomes.

Pharmas charge now is to go above and beyond to continue to earn the trust and respect this guidance affords the industry by doing everything in its power to help its NHS counterparts uphold the emphasis on accountability and openness on which this guidance is built and relies. The ball is squarely in the pharma industrys court to deliver and to prove the worthiness of this partnership model in the UK - and beyond.