PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe has criticised the proposed funding reforms suggested by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in its joint consultation with the National Association of Primary Care.

"A national contract is protective armour, not a straightjacket," Sharpe said. "There is nothing in the RPS service ambitions that is incompatible with maintaining a strong core national contract."

Funding systems and business viability issues are not parts of the role or expertise of the RPS, she continued. "I think those parts of the proposals suffered from a lack of rigorous scrutiny of the risk to the foundations of the community pharmacy network. My greatest fear is that the immense value of the investment and service community pharmacy provides will be put at risk by laudable aspirations to develop pharmacists' role."

There is much in the proposals that PSNC supports, Sharpe told Pharmacy Magazine. However at its worst, adoption of the proposals would lead to a "poorer service to patients and the effective end of independent professional community pharmacy".

An exclusive website-only Q&A with Sue Sharpe can be found here.