From Mrs J. K. Dorey, MRPharmS, and Ms J. E. Hough, MRPharmS
SIR,—We would like to reassure readers of The Journal that hospital pharmacy in Oxford is alive and thriving. Oxford is a small city and during the past year several factors have combined to influence the official statistics and show a high turnover among pharmacists (PJ, January 29, p120).
With the advent of prescribing advisers, Oxfordshire health authority and the Oxford Radcliffe hospital have worked together with primary care groups to continue to develop our tradition of close collaboration across primary and secondary care. Four of our clinical pharmacists are now seconded part-time as prescribing facilitators to PCGs, working alongside a similar number of pharmacists with joint community pharmacist/prescribing facilitator appointments.
Our residency pharmacist programme will soon enter its 10th year and is now well established as a four-site rotation closely linked to the University of Wales diploma in clinical pharmacy. Pharmacists are given two- or three-year training appointments and last autumn, in anticipation of the fallow year, we took the opportunity to increase our number of new recruits.
Finally, like many others, we have had our share of new arrivals - maternity leave has made a contribution to the mobility of the department, though most pharmacists have returned on a variety of flexible arrangements, made easier by the nurseries on each site.
Oxford is a city with a tradition of learning. In pharmacy we are strongly committed to continuous professional development for all pharmacy staff and have the first dedicated, full-time project pharmacist to support individual pharmacists in developing their own CPD portfolios. Her work is becoming recognised nationally and we hope to extend the principle more widely to other groups of staff in the near future. Unfortunately, encouraging and developing staff means that sometimes they are ready to move on, to their benefit, but our loss.
Over the next few years our aim to promote integrated medicines management across Oxfordshire will mean a strengthening of pharmacy support to the clinical teams within the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, while developing a number of collaborations with primary care groups and local community and hospital pharmacists.
Our staffing is now stabilising and all pharmacist posts are filled but it is in the nature of Oxford that staff and students will come for a few years, to benefit from learning and living in this beautiful city and then move on. A high turnover does have its problems, but we also have great opportunity to harness the combined experience and expertise this brings in developing and improving our service.
Jenny Dorey Chief Pharmacist
Jane Hough Deputy Chief Pharmacist Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals