Health minister Rosie Winterton has announced new rules for community pharmacies that wish to dispense drugs for the NHS.

Applicants who fall into any of the following four categories will automatically see their application to provide NHS pharmacy services granted:

• Pharmacies in shopping centres larger than 15,000 square metres that are located away from town centres
• Pharmacies establishing one-stop primary care centres that offer a wide range of primary care and community-based services in addition to usual GP services (eg, dentistry, optometry, podiatry services) to around 18,000 to 20,000 patients
• Pharmacies that are wholly internet or mail-order based must provide a fully professional service
• Pharmacies that commit to opening more than 100 hours per week

In January 2003 the Office of Fair Trading published a report calling for the rules on opening new pharmacies to be relaxed. It argued that this would save money for the NHS and patients. Currently, prospective pharmacies must apply to their local PCT for a contract.

It is predicted that the number of internet and mail-order pharmacies will increase significantly following the reduction in restrictions. Currently, only two online pharmacies have NHS contracts: Pharmacy2U and Allcures.

It is planned that the new reforms will be implemented in conjunction with the new community pharmacy contract (which is still being finalised).

Drug companies are being encouraged to research more drugs for children.

At the moment 40 per cent of medicines given to children have never been tested on children. For babies, this figure is 65 per cent. Doctors often treat children with adult drugs by adjusting the dose and prescribing 'off-label'.

The government hopes to achieve a measurable increase in the number of products formulated and labelled specifically for children.

A European regulation is being written up to encourage companies to develop medicines specifically for children, but it will not come into effect until 2006 and the DoH is keen to move now on this issue.

The government initiative includes:

• strongly encouraging companies to provide paediatric clinical trial data for new and current medicines
• providing better information on the use of medicines on children in patient information leaflets
• publishing a British National Formulary for children
• investing part of the additional £100 million announced in the budget to promote research into medicines for children through new research networks which will be coordinated by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration

The lack of information on medicines for children is caused by an unwillingness to perform clinical studies on children for ethical reasons and because it is very hard to get permission from parents.

Welsh waiting lists have grown according to a report for the BBC.

There are now 68,000 people waiting more than six months for hospital treatment in Wales, up 6,000 since 1997 according to Is devolution creating diversity in education and health?. The report was commissioned by Radio 4 for The World This Week.

The report, which covers Wales as well as Scotland, was made by the University of Nottingham. It compares data on health and education services and concludes that a surprising amount of change has occurred, but also that there are problems in some areas.

It criticised Wales for failing to meet demand for acute services, despite spending more per head on public services.

Welsh Assembly first minister Rhodri Morgan told the BBC that Wales had a different pattern of hospital use: '35 per cent of English patients go into hospital through accident and emergency, it's 55 per cent in Wales.

'We haven't created that situation, it's just a different pattern of hospital use.'

He also pointed out that Wales has shorter waiting lists for cataract surgery. 'We have a four month target compared to six months in England,' he said.

GPs are becoming more remote from their patients, with a distinct difference in care provided by group practices and patients with their own GP.

These are some of the findings of a poll carried out by YouGov on behalf of The Daily Telegraph in which 2,424 patients were questioned.

Group practice patients are unhappier with the standards of care than patients who have their own GP. This is particularly the case for patients in city group practices, such as London, Birmingham and Glasgow.

However, almost half of all respondents say their GP knows their name without referring to their notes.

Nineteen per cent say they are seen by their GP on the same day of making a routine appointment. This rises to 40 per cent when it comes to urgent out-of-hours appointments.

Almost half believe that their GP’s performance is very good.

On the topic of the new GP contract and the removal of the requirement for GPs to provide out-of-hours care, 59 per cent believe this is a good move. Yet a third say local doctors should be available all of the time (as opposed to PCTs contracting doctors from other areas).

E-forms — including the E111, used by UK residents for free or reduced-cost emergency treatment when travelling overseas in Europe — are to be replaced by a new health insurance card.

Travellers will keep the current entitlements and the card will be free of charge and hold no electronic or clinical data. The DoH has launched a consultation following these proposals.

In accordance with European Union law, the card must be introduced by December 2005. Thirteen countries have already adopted the new system.