Five part-time pharmacists are to be employed by the Black Country education consortium to support the education and training of medical, nursing and pharmacy staff in good medicines management (see pA26).
Mr Ron Pate (head of pharmacy services, Dudley group of hospitals) told The Journal on September 21 that the aim of the training was primarily to reduce errors in drug administration and dose calculation, to support the safe storage of medicines and to improve the quality of prescription writing. It would also support the promulgation of the Crown report on the prescribing, supply and administration of medicines (PJ, March 13, p346) and the Duthie report on the safe handling of medicines (PJ, October 15, 1988, p500).
"Much of medical, nursing and pharmaceutical training is academic in nature and clinically focused," Mr Pate said. "The training these pharmacists will provide is not given the priority it deserves in basic training courses.
"This development supports the continued work of the education consortium in hospital pharmacies in reducing patient risk, improving drug security and ensuring our staff receive a thorough all-round training," he added.
The education consortium's manager (Ms Jane Harris) added that this area of training helped address a key issue of clinical governance in a high risk area of patient care.
"Pharmacists are well placed to provide this, and to cascade good practice to others," she said.
Hospitals that form the Black Country education consortium include the Queens hospital (Burton on Trent), the Dudley group of hospitals, Sandwell district general hospital, Walsall Manor hospital and New Cross hospital (Wolverhampton).