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| Conference participants listen to the conference chairman, Robert McArtney |
A hospital pharmacy model that could involve the use of nurses in supervising
the dispensing and supply of medicines has been proposed.
Speaking at this year’s Hospital Pharmacist conference entitled “Re-engineering
healthcare: what it means for hospital pharmacy”, Dr David Cousins (chief
pharmacist, Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals NHS trust) noted that the use
of trained specialist nurses could help alleviate some of the work-force problems
currently being experienced in hospital pharmacy. Although Dr Cousins supported
an extended role for pharmacy technicians, unless they were authorised under
the relevant Acts, they could not be left unsupervised when dispensing and supplying
medicines to patients. Nurses should be able to provide the supervision for
technicians in these circumstances.
Dr Cousins also lamented the fact that the emphasis placed on clinical pharmacy
and the pharmaceutical care model had resulted in a dearth of pharmacists with
an interest in areas such as quality control, procurement, production, technical
services and radiopharmacy. He proposed that graduates in pharmaceutical or
life sciences could be employed if pharmacists were no longer willing to take
on these roles.
He also suggested that persons with a business background should be taken on
to manage the budgetary aspects of the work of chief pharmacists. This would
enable chief pharmacists to concentrate on the system of medicines management
in hospitals.
The conference, which was held on November 2 at the Society’s headquarters
in London, also featured a debate on the motion “This house believes that
pharmacist prescribing is essential for the development of the profession.”
The motion was carried.
A full report of the conference will appear in the November issue of Hospital
Pharmacist.