The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 263 No 7068 p663
October 23, 1999 News

Pharmacists are the drug experts, says Medicines Commission chairman

The chairman of the Medicines Commission (Professor David Lawson) has recognised pharmacists as the drug experts among health professionals. Speaking at the School of Pharmacy's Charter Dinner in London on October 6, Professor Lawson said: "Your expertise in the area of drugs is far greater than any of the existing prescribers. If anybody is to be allowed to extend into the prescribing arena, then it should be highly trained clinical pharmacists." He described the Crown report on the prescribing, supply and administration of medicines as "a major opportunity for pharmacists".

Professor Lawson (centre) with Sir Graham Wilkins (chairman, School of Pharmacy Council) (left) and Professor Sandy Florence (dean, School of Pharmacy)

Professor Lawson suggested that many doctors were keen to start treatment with medicines such as warfarin or lipid-lowering drugs, but that they then failed to monitor or adjust the treatment appropriately.
"There is an area where pharmacists' expertise would best be used," he said.
Turning to the way professional changes were currently being sought by various groups, Professor Lawson said that threats to professions were nothing new.
For the next decade, it was necessary to concentrate on providing seamless care for patients. Doctors could not do this alone. Seamless care could only be provided if doctors worked in teams with pharmacists, nurses, and others, as "coequals". There would need to be lines of accountability.
"I think that there is an urgent need for your profession to work with ours in trying to provide better care in the next century," Professor Lawson said.
Turning to educational matters, Professor Lawson said that he noted that the academic expertise of the School of Pharmacy was being made available to local hospitals.
"But why stop there," he asked. "It seems to me that senior pharmacists talk to senior doctors quite happily, but that the juniors do not mingle. They seem to live in separate worlds, yet they have a lot of links. Pharmacology and therapeutics are not that far apart. Maybe in one or two years we should be thinking about sharing courses. That might lead to interaction and mutual respect each for the other that is slower to develop at the moment than we would like to see."