The roles of pharmacists working in primary care groups and community pharmacy were examined at a meeting organised by the University of Birmingham health services management centre on January 13, 2000. The aim of the meeting was to help pharmacists and their PCG, trust and health authority colleagues assess likely future roles and responsibilities within primary care pharmacy
Any strategy for community pharmacy had to focus on patient care, Mrs JEANETTE HOWE (acting chief pharmacist, NHS Executive) emphasised. A focus on patients was very much part of the Government's overall vision for the NHS, she said, and community pharmacists could respond in a number of ways to this vision and improve patients' experiences of the NHS.
First, pharmacists could support self care and healthy lifestyles. Currently, pharmacists were an underused resource in the health options open to the public and the Government was keen to change this. For this reason, there had been a deliberate emphasis on the role of pharmacists within the "Choose the right remedy" winter campaign and also in the antibiotic resistance campaign. Moreover, within NHS Direct, a pharmacy referral project would go live this spring, and NHS Direct on-line access points would be established in pharmacies as well as other public places such as GP surgeries and libraries.
Secondly, pharmacists had a role in pharmaceutical care or medicines management (eg, repeat dispensing, prescribing advice to GPs, admission and discharge from hospitals).
In addition, the "Expert patients task force", announced in the White Paper on "Saving lives: our healthier nation", was designed to help people with chronic conditions and disability to take a lead in managing their condition. Community pharmacists could provide information for these patients, suggesting self help options and providing clinical advice.
Thirdly, pharmacists had a responsibility to provide not only an accurate and safe dispensing service - which generally happened in most cases - but also, within this, appropriate advice. In other words, they had a responsibility to deliver quality patient care, and the clinical governance agenda provided a framework for this. Some elements of clinical governance, such as record keeping of pharmacist interventions, were not a regular part of pharmacy practice as yet, but continuing professional development was one component of clinical governance where pharmacy had already made good progress.