Community pharmacy in Norfolk set out its stall for pharmacy services into the new millennium at a conference for health-related workers on October 15.
The meeting, attended by social services staff, members of the community health council, and others, along with an equal number of pharmacists, heard Miss Ann Lewis (Secretary and Registrar, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) and Mr John D'Arcy (director, National Pharmaceutical Association) explain where the profession saw itself fitting into the health care team and the new services that it could provide, such as medicines management.
Dr Christopher Price (chief executive, Norwich primary care group) said that he was now considering how, rather than if, pharmacists fitted in as members of the primary care team. That was a change from his position 10 years ago.
PCGs, he said, needed pharmacists to help them with setting and controlling medicines budgets. They also needed community pharmacists to act as minor illness managers, to work on health promotion and to direct people towards suitable services to met their needs.
Speaking for Norfolk local pharmaceutical committee on October 20, Mr David Coleman said that the conference had already borne fruit in the form of recognition that pharmacists could provide useful input into the expansion of nurse prescribing in the county.