The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is to revise the wording of
the lithium warning card. That decision was made by the Council’s Practice
Committee at its meeting on September 19.
The main change to be made to the card would be the addition of a reference
to the importance of monitoring blood thyroid hormone levels as well as lithium
levels. Once a final draft had been prepared, the Plain English Campaign would
be approached to review it.
The committee felt that the card remained a useful service to patients, even
though there was now a requirement for the supply of patient information leaflets
for individual products.
Practice policy
The Practice Committee agreed to ask the Council to give high priority to developing
a policy statement in response to the forthcoming national service framework
for services to older people, which was expected to be published before the
end of the year.
The committee also agreed to submit two other proposals for policy development
for consideration by the Council. One was to set out the Society’s policy
on nurse prescribing. The other was to develop a strategy aimed at harmonising
the information contained in the bar codes on all packs produced by medicines
manufacturers.
The committee noted, however, that issues arising from the National Health Service
national plan and the “Pharmacy in the future” plan could take precedence
over other policy issues. In an attempt to free resources to allow the Society
to respond to the opportunities presented by the NHS documents, the committee
also reviewed its workplan and priorities and agreed that certain existing projects
and proposals should be put on hold.
Dispensing by veterinary surgeons
The Practice Committee agreed that the Society should accept an invitation to
submit evidence to the Government’s independent review of dispensing by
veterinary surgeons. The meeting approved a number of points for inclusion in
the Society’s submission.
The committee was reminded that the review group intended to examine the current
practice whereby veterinarians themselves dispensed virtually all veterinary
prescription-only medicines (POMs) and to assess the impact of this arrangement
on availability and prices. The group would also consider the classification
of veterinary medicinal products that are currently POMs to determine whether
certain products should be more widely available.
In addition, the group was seeking the profession’s views on the extent
to which veterinary POMs were already available from pharmacies, or could be
made available, and the potential impact of supply through pharmacies on the
price and availability of such products.
Tobacco control in the NHS
The Practice Committee agreed that the Society should respond to a Health Development
Agency consultation on tobacco control policies within psychiatric and long-stay
units within the National Health Service. Among other things, the response would
urge that staff and patients who wished to stop smoking should be given adequate
help and support, including the offer of nicotine replacement therapy.
Affirmation of ethical principles
The Education Committee agreed to disseminate a suggestion that pharmacy graduates
should be asked make a form of affirmation or pledge to uphold the profession’s
ethical principles.
The matter had been raised with the Society by the school of pharmacy of a university
at which graduates in medicine and nursing already made such an affirmation.
A Council member had subsequently suggested that an affirmation of ethical principles
by pharmacy graduates at the time of graduation would serve as an excellent
introduction to the pharmaceutical profession. The suggestion was that, at the
end of pharmacy graduation ceremonies, all graduates would be asked to stand
while the head of the school read out a statement of ethical principles and
asked them to respond by affirming those principles.
The committee resolved to refer the suggestion to individual schools of pharmacy,
asking them to consider the idea and make a decision whether to proceed with
affirmation at the point of graduation. The suggestion would also be referred
to the Society’s preregistration advisory group, which would be asked to
consider the introduction of affirmation (or reaffirmation) at some stage during
preregistration training. The Society’s Public Affairs Directorate would
be asked to look into incorporating the suggestion within the Society’s
registration ceremonies. The committee also resolved to seek the views of the
executive of the British Pharmaceutical Students Association.
Degree accreditation The Education Committee confirmed the accreditation of the master of pharmacy honours degree course of the University of Portsmouth until 2002.
Branch observers The following observers from the Society’s branches attended the meetings of Council committees on September 19: Mr Meir Kattan (representative of the Society’s South East Metropolitan branch); Miss Katie Smith (secretary of the Society’s Ipswich branch); and Mr Richard Wood (secretary of the Society’s North East Lancashire branch).