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Society lobbies Welsh party conferences
New post to co-ordinate Society's work on NHS plans
Society publishes guide to ADRs

Society lobbies Welsh party conferences

Representatives of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Wales have been giving the profession's views to politicians during the Welsh spring party conference season.

The vice-chairman of the Welsh Executive, Andrea Robinson, and the Welsh secretary, Erica Barrie, attended the Labour party conference held in Swansea from March 1 to 4. Mrs Barrie told The Journal that they had had fruitful conversations with a number of influential National Assembly members, including the minister for health and social services, Jane Hutt, and her deputy assembly minister, Dr Brian Gibbons.

Mrs Barrie also attended the Liberal Democrat conference held in Cardiff from March 23 to 25. Issues she discussed with LibDem politicians included the importance of pharmacists giving support to patients to increase the effectiveness of their medicines and the importance of maintaining the network of 720 pharmacies in Wales, particularly those in rural areas.

Assembly members Mrs Barrie spoke to included Mike German, LibDem leader in Wales, who is deputy first minister in the Labour/LibDem partnership and minister for economic development. In a conversation with Kirsty Williams, chairman of the Assembly's Health and Social Services committee, Mrs Barrie discussed the importance of implementing the recommendations in the recently issued report of the Prescribing Practices Task and Finish Group (PJ, March 24, p376).

Mrs Barrie also spoke to LibDem members of Parliament, including Richard Livsey (principal spokesman for Wales) and Lembit Öpik, MP (a spokesman on home and legal affairs).

Mrs Barrie told The Journal that the Society had not attended Plaid Cymru's small spring conference but would be represented at the party's main conference in the autumn.

New post to co-ordinate Society's work on NHS plans

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has created the new post of professional development fellow to co-ordinate work on Government plans for the National Health Service. It is also to recruit a pharmacist to further develop its work on clinical governance in pharmacy.

The professional development post has been filled by David Pruce as a two-year internal secondment. For the past seven years, Mr Pruce has been audit development fellow, responsible for developing clinical audit and, more recently, clinical governance. His audit post has received funding from the Department of Health and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Speaking about his new role, Mr Pruce said that implementing the National Health Service plans for England, Wales and Scotland was a key priority for the Society. It provided the opportunity to achieve many of the “Pharmacy in a New Age” aims, such as medicines management, prescribing rights and repeat dispensing.

Much of the work had already started, Mr Pruce said. His job was to ensure that it all fitted together and that nothing was missed. He would also be looking at the overall effect of the changes and what the Society could do to help pharmacists adjust to their new roles and responsibilities.

Commenting on the recruitment of a clinical governance pharmacist, Mr Pruce said that clinical governance was an important part of the Government's NHS reforms, and pharmacists needed to implement it fully. The Society's views on clinical governance had already been set out in a policy paper, “Achieving excellence in pharmacy through clinical governance” (PJ, September 25, 1999, p479). Many of the tasks set out in the paper had already been achieved, but there was still more work required.

Society publishes guide to ADRs

A new book on adverse drugs reactions has been published by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Pharmaceutical Press.

'Adverse drug reactions' sets out to provide comprehensive guidance on ADRs. It describes specific groups of adverse effects, with each chapter including case studies and tables for quick reference. Among the topics covered are the severity and frequency of adverse reactions, their predisposing factors and their recognition and prevention.

The 312-page paperback book has been edited by Anne Lee (principal pharmacist, drug information, Glasgow Royal Infirmary) and written by a team of authors who include pharmacists, doctors and nurses. It is available at a cost of £24.95 (United Kingdom) or £27.95 (overseas) from the Pharmaceutical Press (tel 01491 829272; e-mail rpsgb@cabi.org).