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
The importance of quality assessment in pharmacy was emphasised by Dr JUDY CANTRILL (clinical senior lecturer, National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, University of Manchester), who described the development of the centre's recently published quality assessment guide for pharmacists (PJ, January 8, p 45).
Dr Cantrill said that the incentive to produce the document had been the good reception given to an earlier guide on quality assessment that had been produced by the centre for general medical practitioners.
Funded by the Department of Health, the pharmacy guide had been sent out not only to pharmacists but also to primary care groups, including clinical governance and prescribing leads, and health authority pharmaceutical advisers. The aim of the guide was to give pharmacists guidance on quality measurement in primary care, including measurement of their own practice quality.
In conclusion, Dr Cantrill emphasised that everyone should be focusing on improving the quality of primary care. Medicines management would continue to be the single most important intervention. Within this, cost was an important issue, but it was important to shift the balance more towards quality.
The quality issue fitted well into clinical governance and the health improvement programme, and both of these provided good opportunities for delivery of pharmaceutical care - something that the pharmacy profession had not yet grasped as well as it might.