In 1999, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society set out to record systematically the concerns that its members had about reaching pharmacy's New Age and the barriers which they felt were getting in the way. The technique used was known as the Catalyst process.
In the first stage of the process, problems were identified by a representative sample of practising pharmacists in controlled workshops and were then broken down into underlying problem statements. In the second stage, hundreds of pharmacists ranked the problem statements, using a simple card sorting mechanism known as the CatMat. The Society's role then was to devise an action to tackle each of the higher ranking problems.
The results of this process, sought after by Council members and speakers at the annual general meeting, have now been published (pp814-5). The results show that while pharmacists are enthusiastic about their new roles they are concerned about how they will make the transition from current practice to the New Age. They are concerned that they are being held back by staffing shortages in hospitals and the way in which the remuneration of community pharmacy contractors is currently organised.
Since the Catalyst process was undertaken things have moved on with the publication of the pharmacy plan in England, the Scottish and Welsh versions of which are expected "real soon now”. However, the problem with the plan is a lack of any new funding to address the problems of transition. This point was made to the Prime Minister (Mr Tony Blair) by Mr Kirit Patel (a member of the Society's Council) when he attended a seminar on support for small businesses at 10 Downing Street this week (p806.
Mr Patel said that the Treasury needed to take a long-term view of pharmacy, making more investment in the short term in order to reap the cost-savings which pharmacists could make through more effective management of medicines in the long term.
A similar point was made by the All-Party Parliamentary Pharmacy Group in a report to Health Ministers compiled after its recent visit to St Thomas's hospital in London (p806). The group was clearly impressed by the presentations given to it on what hospital pharmacists can achieve and called on the Government to provide start-up funds to allow more widespread adoption of new services.
Transitions are difficult for all involved, but, having spelt out the way forward for pharmacy, the Government must put its money where its mouth is and provide help to get things moving. The profession is willing to move — the Government must ensure it is able to get from here to there.