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The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 265 No 7105 p106
July 15, 2000 The Conference

Practice and profession

Modernisation and the professional

This year's programme for pharmacists in practice tackles major challenges for pharmacy in the Government's modernisation agenda, with a different theme for each day of the conference.

Sunday "The future of pharmacy in the NHS" is the theme for the Sunday, when attendance at the conference will be free of charge.
For community pharmacists, a session on the community pharmacy strategy will be addressed by Professor Mike Pringle (chairman of council, Royal College of General Practitioners), while speakers at a session on community pharmacy and public health will be Ms Yve Buckland (chairman of the new Health Development Agency) and Mrs Karen O'Brien of the Trafford teenage pregnancy project. The afternoon also offers an address on pain control by Professor Nicholas Moore (University of Bordeaux).
On Sunday morning, hospital pharmacists will consider "Unified drug budgets and the introduction of expensive new drugs", with a National Health Service regional pharmaceutical adviser (Mr Peter Sharott) and a health authority's head of public health development (Miss Sonia Colwill). After lunch there will be an opportunity to discuss the issues of multidisciplinary working and professional relationships at a session on the role of the pharmacy technician.
Later in the afternoon, a session for all pharmacists in practice will look at the implications of e-commerce for the supply and prescribing of medicines.

BPC 2000

Monday The theme for the day on the Monday will be "Health technology: development and assessment". For early risers, the day will begin at 7.30am with a Community Pharmacy Group breakfast session on "E-commerce: threat or opportunity for community pharmacy?"
The main programme for pharmacists in practice begins with a session on "New medicines: what, when and how", with the editor of the British Medical Journal (Dr Richard Smith) in the chair.
Community and hospital pharmacists then come together in a joint session on "The pharmacist's role in delivering clinical governance", which will be addressed by the communications director of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Ms Anne-Toni Rodgers).
In the afternoon, community pharmacists will look at controlling the drug budget in primary care and at improving access to care, while hospital pharmacists will consider the future of clinical pharmacy and pharmacists and controls assurance.
Industrial pharmacists will have three main sessions on the Monday, when they will examine the electronics medicines compendium, out-sourcing and the patient pack initiative.

Tuesday The Tuesday starts with addresses by Mrs Christine Glover (President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society) and Lord Hunt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health), who is to set out the Government's challenging agenda for pharmacy - a topic that ties in with the day's theme of "Balancing priorities and outcomes".
The morning continues with a session for pharmacists in practice on "Developing and delivering standards and guidelines", with presentations from the NHS Executive's health services director (Dr Sheila Adam) and the chief pharmaceutical officer in Scotland (Mr Bill Scott).
Later in the morning, for the first time at any health service conference, the Government's cancer and coronary heart disease "tsars" will come together to discuss how pharmacists can assist in the delivery of the Government's priorities for those diseases.
The subject of standards and frameworks dominates the afternoon programme, with the launch of the Society's guidance on mental health and service frameworks, followed by a similar launch of guidance on asthma and COPD.

The hot topics sessions also take place on the Tuesday afternoon, covering a range of high-profile issues, including cloning, on-line pharmacy, sexual health strategy, herbal medicines licensing, expert patient groups, genetically modified products, pharmacists in primary care trusts, and wastage of medicines.

Wednesday The final day, with the topic of "What the future holds", sees debates on the future of the profession and on the impact of genetics. In "The great debate", participants will consider "Putting our house in order: professional performance and self-regulation". With Mr Niall Dickson (health and social affairs editor, BBC Television) facilitating the debate, the principal speakers will be Dr Finlay Scott (chief executive, General Medical Council), Miss Ann Lewis (Secretary and Registrar, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) and Ms Donna Covey (chief executive, Association of Community Health Councils in England and Wales).
Practising pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists come together for the conference finale with another debate, this time on the topic "Genetics: friend or foe?". The principal speakers will be crop improvement expert Professor Don Grierson (University of Nottingham) and the chief scientific adviser to Greenpeace, Dr Douglas Parr.
But perhaps the highlight of the final day - if not of the whole conference - is at noon, with a presentation on "Should doctors be Darwinian?" by Oxford university's Professor Richard Dawkins, well known as a broadcaster and as the best-selling author of ‘The selfish gene' and many other publications.

Practice research

The practice research element of this year's conference begins on the Sunday, when the practice research award lecture provides the first plenary conference session for pharmacists in practice. The topic this year is "The many faces of prescribing" and the speaker is Miss Judy Cantrill (University of Manchester).
This year's call for practice research papers brought in a wide range of contributions for poster display or oral presentation during the first three days of the conference. Sixty posters will be displayed in the foyer areas. Their authors will be in attendance on the Monday to discuss their work, and there will be a wine reception to mark the occasion.
Sixteen of the practice contributions will be presented as oral papers in sessions on the Sunday and Tuesday, and 18 of the posters will be considered in discussion forums on the Monday and Tuesday.

Other groups

Several pharmacy bodies other than the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will be running sessions during the conference.
The Primary Care Pharmacists Association has organised meetings at 5pm on each of the first three days, with an emphasis on coronary heart disease. On the Sunday, the National Association of Women Pharmacists will hold an afternoon session on reflexology. Among other things, it will look at the role pharmacists can play in its promotion and delivery. The Tuesday afternoon programme includes the traditional history of pharmacy session organised by the British Society for the History of Pharmacy. On the Wednesday morning, a session on complementary therapy will look at evidence of its effectiveness, how it can be integrated into the NHS and its implications for pharmacy practice. On the Wednesday afternoon, a Pharmacy Law and Ethics Association session will examine self-regulation and the care of the public.