The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's practice advice for pharmacists providing domiciliary oxygen services (‘Medicines, ethics and practice: a guide for pharmacists', 24th edition, p98) is to be amended to take account of a recent Medical Devices Agency safety notice on the risk of fire with medical gas cylinders.
That decision was made by the Society's Practice Committee on July 7.
The committee agreed that the following wording should be added to the "service delivery" section of the practice advice:
"All persons involved in the use and handling of oxygen cylinders (including pharmacists and patients/carers) should receive training to ensure: cleanliness when storing, transporting or connecting oxygen cylinders to head sets or other medical devices; that users open oxygen cylinders slowly; that if resistance to opening of the cylinder is excessive the cylinder should not be used and should be returned to the manufacturer/supplier with a label to indicate the problem; and that users read, understand and follow all instructions and labelling provided by the manufacturer/supplier.
"There is a serious risk of fire if substances such as dirt, oil, grease or hand creams contaminate connections between medical devices and oxygen cylinders."
The committee further agreed to add two further points of advice to the "service delivery" section:
"Patients/carers should be advised not to over-tighten the headset: it should be hand-tight only", and "Patients/carers should be advised to report any leaking equipment".
In addition, the committee approved a few minor changes elsewhere in the document to clarify existing wording and to update information about training materials.
Digital television The Practice Committee agreed that the possible implications for pharmacy of developments in digital television should be examined. The committee made its decision after considering a report that the Department of Health was to fund pilot projects to assess the application of digital TV in health, health care and health care services. The committee recognised that digital TV could have an impact on various aspects of the Society's work and might have implications for policy development. Views would therefore be sought on the potential impact of digital TV developments so that a decision could be made on the need for further action.
Crown review The Practice Committee requested that the Society should share with other pharmacy bodies an awareness-building presentation on the Crown review of the prescribing, supply and administration of medicines, commissioned for use by Council members. The presentation, with an accompanying briefing, was intended to cover the background to the Crown report, the current position, likely future developments and their implications for pharmacy, and how pharmacists could best become involved. It had been commissioned for use by Council members at branch and other appropriate meetings.
It was reported to the Education Committee that the Society had responded to a National Health Service consultation document on a review of workforce planning, "A Health Service of all the talents: developing the NHS workforce" (PJ, June 17, p900).
Prepared in the education division, the response supported the broad aims of the document, and in particular the aim that care should be delivered quickly by skilled professionals who listened to patients and provided the best possible treatment and care. However, the response also expressed grave concern that in concentrating on the medical and nursing professions the document tended to marginalise all the other professions that were essential to the NHS workforce.
Supporting the concept of removing barriers that prevented maximisation of patient care, the response emphasised that pharmacists and their support staff were prepared to do more for and within the NHS. So far as education was concerned, the Society had on many occasions considered and improved flexibility of entry to pharmacy education. It saw scope for increased flexibility in shared learning with students of other health professions and would welcome initiatives on this.
However, the response warned that increased flexibility should not put patient safety at risk by having health workers attempt roles or tasks for which they were not adequately educated. While agreeing that demarcation was not in the interest of effective and efficient patient care, the response pointed out that specialisation was often in patients' best interests.
Commenting on a list of education and training weaknesses in the consultation document, the response stated that most of the identified weaknesses did not apply to, or were minimised for, pharmacy, thanks to the combined efforts of the Society and the schools of pharmacy.
Welcoming a proposal for a national workforce development board, the Society's response recommended that its members should include a senior pharmacist because pharmacy was in a unique position to contribute. This was because it was a "bridging" profession, involving bridges between primary and secondary care, between NHS-contracted and NHS-managed care, between health care and commercial considerations, between pharmaceutical science and patient care, between manufacturers and users of medicines, between prescribed use of medicines and self-care with purchased medicines, and between funding of undergraduate education by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and funding of postgraduate vocational training by the NHS.
The response also welcomed a proposal that a subgroup of the national board should "determine the overall number of undergraduate training places required annually in clinical professions" taking account of needs across all sectors. The Society would like it also to determine the overall number of pharmacy preregistration training places required annually in the hospital sector and the extent of support to be given for structured hospital pharmacy experience for preregistration trainees in the community sector.
Pharmacy course applications It was reported to the Education Committee that there was no sign of any significant decrease in numbers of applicants for pharmacy degree courses since the change to the four-year degree. Universities and Colleges Admissions Service figures for 1999 entry showed a total of 4,794 applicants for pharmacy courses, of whom 3,939 were from the United Kingdom and 856 from overseas. The proportion of female applicants continued to remain steady at about 60 per cent.
National framework for qualifications The Education Committee agreed that, in a letter that was to be sent to the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, the Society should set out its the view that the MPharm title for four-year pharmacy degrees should be retained so long as there were masters first degrees in other disciplines. The main purpose of the letter was to invite senior representatives of the QAA to the Society to discuss pharmacy's place in the QAA's proposed national framework for qualifications. A communication had been received from the QAA expressing an interest in discussing the matter with the Education Committee.
The Science Committee applauded the speed with which the Medicines Control Agency had worked towards the development of legislation to regulate traditionally used medicines.
The United Kingdom had been asked to take a lead in preparing a draft European Union directive on the matter. The MCA had produced a draft discussion document about the possibility of a directive. After review at a meeting on July 3, the document was to proceed to a drafting group which would prepare a draft directive for a meeting of the European Commission's pharmaceutical committee in September.
The target date for the introduction of UK legislation was 2001. If an EU directive was issued, then the UK needed only to enact secondary legislation; primary legislation would be needed otherwise.
Genetics and health The Science Committee welcomed an offer from Dr Ron Zimmern, co-chairman of the Nuffield trust genetics scenario project, to visit the Society to talk about the project, the aim of which was "to assess the impact of advances in genetics and molecular biology on the organisation, funding and provision of clinical services, on changes to clinical practice, and on the potential for disease prevention and public health action".
Scientist in the high street The Science Committee noted the success of the reception at which the "scientist in the high street" initiative had been launched (PJ, April 15, p587) and agreed that a suitable theme should be decided for a second reception.
Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists The chairman of the Science Committee (Professor William Dawson) congratulated committee member Professor Graham Buckton on his election as chairman of the Society's Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists.