The government has responded to a controversial Office of Fair Trading report proposing a shake-up of the UK pharmacy market.

The Department of Health proposals mean that pharmacists could offer services traditionally only available at GPs surgeries, including medication review and patient monitoring.

Forum Response: National Pharmaceutical Association

John D'Arcy, chief executive of the NPA, said: "Today's decision is very much a compromise approach - and comes after months of government prevarication. This is clearly a complex matter and as ever, the devil will be in the detail.

"We need time to examine these proposed measures in detail, to ensure they provide the flexibility that is needed to enhance service provision where this is required, and, crucially, that they meet the needs of patients and health commissioners.

"We are particularly keen to ensure that although government says it has rejected deregulation, the new proposals do not amount to deregulation through the back door.

"We have always regarded the OFT recommendation as being 'a solution looking for a problem' - and are very concerned that we may turn a system which worked well for patients and the NHS into one that doesn't.

"Since January, there has been a huge groundswell of public concern and support for community pharmacy and a clear recognition by patients and the media of the risk to local pharmaceutical services posed by the OFT. Hundreds of thousands of patients signed petitions, and lobbied their MPs - and many MPs reported bigger postbags on this issue than the war in Iraq.A clear case of 'people power'.

"A recent ICM national opinion poll revealed high levels of customer concern at the prospect of a possible reduction in local pharmacy services or closures, should the government deregulate pharmaceutical services.

"Almost four out of five adults were worried at the risk this would pose - and this concern was especially acute among mothers with young children and the ageing - the very customers who rely most heavily on the accessibility, convenience and expertise provided by their local pharmacy."

Forum Response: Consumers' Association

Phil Evans, principal policy adviser at the Consumers' Association, told ePolitix.com: "In opposing sensible reforms of the sector the government has today thrown its weight behind the vested interests in the pharmacy sector.

"The Office of Fair Trading were correct to call for entry barriers in pharmacy to go. The reasonable reforms that the OFT proposed should have been backed and supplemented with more power for Primary Care Trusts and more money to target provision in poor and rural areas that simply do not have pharmacies at present.

"When Patricia Hewitt says that entry restrictions help provision in poor and rural areas she is simply wrong. There is virtually no provision in these areas - and entry controls have done nothing to help.

"The fact is that entry controls have frozen the sector to the benefit of a handful of big pharmacy multiples. In opposing sensible reform the government has backed the interests of these multiples over the consumer.

"The government has sent out a clear signal today. They talk of having a world class competition and consumer protection regime - but the minute a vested interest puts money into a campaign against reform they cave in.

"Whilst the OFT wanted pharmacists to be set free of red tape and bureaucratic approval, the DTI wants to erect more hurdles, fiddle with criteria and bolster bureaucracy and red tape. The pharmacy license is not being abolished, but made more complex."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Jonathan Ellis, policy manager at Help the Aged, said: "Help the Aged welcomes the government's decision not to consign community pharmacies to the same fate as many local post offices or banks.

"Community pharmacies provide a vital service to older people, both in terms of dispensing NHS prescriptions and helping older people to manage their own conditions more effectively. Pharmacies are also on the front line in delivering the government's ambition of better quality services for older people.

"Removing these regulations would threaten the many thousands of community pharmacies which many older people rely on, particularly those in isolated or rural communities."