Society makes awards totalling £72,000 to support PDGs
Nearly 40 groups of pharmacists across England and Wales have been awarded shares of a £72,000 sum allocated by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to help maximise pharmacy's contribution to health care at local level.
Nineteen pharmacy development groups (PDGs) in England and one initiative in Wales have been awarded sums of up to £3,000. One PDG has won separate awards for two projects. In addition, 11 of these groups and a further 19 PDGs have been awarded sums of up to £500 to help develop their infrastructure.
Bids for the awards had to be received by January 28. They were then assessed by an adjudicating panel made up of senior members and staff of the Society. The panel also took advice from a primary care group chief executive when making its decisions.
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What are PDGs?
Pharmacy development groups are groups of pharmacists established in England with the encouragement of the Society to develop the profession locally. The aim is to harness the enthusiasm and expertise of pharmacists in all areas of practice to take the profession forward within a health authority area or primary care group boundary. PDGs are peculiar to England because the local National Health Service structure in Scotland and Wales offers other mechanisms for developing pharmacy locally.
PDGs have flexible membership to reflect the variety of pharmacists within the locality, but they should include the health authority pharmaceutical adviser, a member of the local pharmaceutical committee, a member of the Society's local branch committee and preferably the local Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education tutor. They are also expected to have members who are, or will liaise closely with, secondary care pharmacists.
PDGs are concerned only with professional development and do not compete with the local pharmaceutical committee in negotiating for contractors. However, in many areas they co-operate with LPCs to respond to strategy documents, work up bids for new and extended services and get pharmacy integrated into local strategies.
Information about setting up a PDG can be obtained from Mrs Anne Adams, the Society's national co-ordinator for the "Building the future" stage of Pharmacy in a New Age. She can be contacted at 12 Pritchard Drive, Stapleford, Nottingham NG9 7GW (tel/fax 0115 939 6465; e-mail aadams@rpsgb.org.uk).
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Because Wales does not have PDGs, consideration was given to applications for initiatives across a health authority or local health group, involving all interested pharmacies from all sectors of the profession. Applications were to have the support of the health authority's director of pharmaceutical public health, the LPC and LHG(s). The successful Welsh application had the support of the various local pharmacy organisations across North Wales.
The £72,000 comes from the Society's Pharmacy in a New Age budget. A further £8,000 has been allocated for professional development in Scotland. The Society's Scottish Executive has decided to use it to facilitate and support focus group meetings between pharmacy representatives in local health care communities across Scotland.
The higher awards of up to £3,000 were given to support the following projects:
- Billericay & Wickford (Essex) Targeted smoking cessation scheme for diabetic and hypertensive patients
- Cambridgeshire Community based anticoagulant service
- Central Lancashire Survey and investigation of the possibility of establishing extended roles, such as domiciliary visiting
- Dacorum (West Hertfordshire) 'Flu campaign initiative, raising awareness of the community pharmacist as first port of call for minor ailments
- East & North Hertfordshire Aspirin in coronary heart disease initiative, aiming to increase the proportion of patients taking aspirin as secondary prevention for coronary heart disease
- East Derby "Brown bag" medication review clinics for non insulin dependent diabetics
- Gloucestershire Extension of an emergency contraceptive scheme into community pharmacy practice
- Harlow Audit of advice on taking aspirin in coronary heart disease
- Leeds Development of initiatives on methadone supervision, head lice management, teenage sexual health, coronary heart disease, pharmacist prescription interventions, monitored dosage systems and extended adherence support
- Lincolnshire Establishment of a rolling programme of health improvement initiatives
- Norfolk Minor ailments initiative aiming to extend the influence of pharmacists within the primary care team and to promote the role of the pharmacist to the public
- North & Mid Hampshire Audit to determine patients' comprehension of how their medication should be taken when prescriptions are issue without explicit instructions, with a view to improving patient concordance
- Northumberland Establishment of a pharmacy clinical governance forum across primary and secondary care
- Northumberland Development of a pharmaceutical needs assessment tool to be used to benefit health and social care by maintaining independent living
- North Wales Public relations campaign to influence public perception of the need for medicines
- Portsmouth & South East Hampshire Risk reduction in medicines management initiative, with feedback to primary and secondary care
- Redditch Training for pharmacists on the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease to equip them to support the local health improvement programme
- South Cheshire Initiative to develop clinical governance and help integrate pharmacists into the primary care group
- Southern Derbyshire Working with the Society on a manual for users of pdgtalk.net (the Society's internet discussion group for PDG members)
- Uttlesford (Essex) Community pharmacy based management of repeat prescribing
- West Surrey Targeting pharmaceutical care for the elderly, primary/secondary care interface initiative
The lower level awards of up to £500 were made for developing the PDG infrastructure (eg, by helping with administration or room hire costs or with acquiring a fax machine or an e-mail address). The 30 successful applications came from the following PDGs: 1066 (Hastings area), Barnet, Billericay & Wickford, Brent, Brighton & Hove, Bury and Rochdale, Cambridgeshire, Central Lancashire, Dorset, Ealing, East London and the City, Enfield, Gloucestershire, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Isle of Wight, Leeds, Lincolnshire, Milton Keynes, Norfolk, North & East Devon, North & Mid Hampshire, Portsmouth & South East Hampshire, Redditch, Rugby, Wakefield and West Surrey.
Commenting on the Society's support for PDGs, the President (Mrs Christine Glover) said: "These awards emphasise the contribution that our profession is making to local health care and it is especially pleasing to see both the enthusiasm and overwhelming response from all of the awards' entrants."