Trust, focus and evidence needed, says gold medallist
Trust, focus and evidence are needed for the development
of pharmacy, according to the recipient of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's
Charter gold medal for 2001.
Speaking at the Society's annual general meeting
on May 16, Professor ALISON BLENKINSOPP (professor of the practice of
pharmacy, Department of Medicines Management, Keele University) said that
all her achievements in pharmacy had been the result of working with other
people — both inside and outside the profession. Trusting other people
and being trusted by them had been critical, and it seemed to her that
more trust was needed within the profession. It was weird, she argued,
that pharmacists felt free to criticise the Council but were then surprised
when few people stood for election to the Council. Council members had
to be trusted to get on with things.
One of the most important things that Council members
were involved in at the moment was the consultation on standard operating
procedures for dispensing. If the profession could not find a way for
community pharmacists to delegate the practical business of supply — not
the profession aspects — then there was no future for community pharmacy.
Turning to the need for focus, Professor Blenkinsopp
said that “Pharmacy in the future” was a wake-up call to the profession
that what was going on in the National Health Service was not just another
fad. “Pharmacy in the future” would definitely happen, and the last thing
that was needed was distractions. Pharmacists had to work together to
make a future for community pharmacy.
Consultation records
Professor Blenkinsopp's final point was to do with
evidence. There were two sorts of health care evidence: the sort that
came from clinical trials and research and the more basic sort that came
from the records that health professionals kept. Other professions thought
it extraordinary that community pharmacists had no records of their consultations
with patients. Pharmacists were, in fact, the only health professionals
who had no record of their contribution to clinical care — and it could
be a big contribution.
There was no point arguing about one's contribution
to patient care if one could not prove it, she declared, and there was
no point complaining about being left out when no-one could see what one
had done. She therefore challenged pharmacy organisations, pharmacy information
technology suppliers and community pharmacists to make a start on constructing
and keeping records of interventions. If pharmacists wanted to be taken
seriously, they had to have the confidence to record what they did.
Earlier, presenting Professor Blenkinsopp with her
medal, which recognised outstanding service to the Society and to the
profession, the PRESIDENT, Christine Glover, said that the recipient had
been elected to the Society's Council in 1988 — a year in which she had
also been awarded her PhD, had married, had and seen her husband John
qualify as a doctor. In the autumn of 1988 she had taken up a post at
Bradford School of Pharmacy and had started a project on GP/pharmacist
local liaison groups. In 1991 she had left Bradford to take up an appointment
as the first director of the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education,
where she was responsible, with colleagues, for setting up CPPE's ways
of working, including its system of local tutors and project development
methods. In 1995 she had moved to Keele University, taking on an academic
role and a role as regional pharmaceutical adviser. She had also begun
to develop a research programme on concordance in medicine-taking and
had served on the multidisciplinary group whose work had led to the recent
announcement of £1.3m funding for the Society to host the Partnership
in Medicine Taking Taskforce.
In 1996, she had left the Society's Council to develop
and broaden her work on medicines policy. Since then she had evaluated
the West Midlands nurse prescribing pilot and reviewed NHS Direct software
to introduce community pharmacy referrals. More recently she had led the
team that had produced the medicines booklet for the National Service
Framework for Older People, published a few weeks ago. She had been appointed
to the Committee on Safety of Medicines in 1999, becoming the first pharmacist
to serve concurrently on both the CSM and the joint formulary committee
for the British National Formulary. In the same year she was appointed
to her personal chair at Keele.
During 2000, she had been appointed to the patient
empowerment action team as part of the NHS modernisation programme, and
subsequently to the NHS access taskforce, where she was working on primary
care access with a particular emphasis on self-care.
Thanking the President and the Council for awarding
her the profession's highest honour, Professor BLENKINSOPP said that she
was indebted to the many people who had worked with her, supported her
and helped her during her career. A belief that it was possible to do
things, and that it was worth trying to change things, had first been
instilled in her by her parents and had been continued by her husband,
who always gave her the confidence to try potentially difficult things.
Branch communication channels
The two-way communication between the Society and
its branches, once so strong, should be enhanced, according to the winner
of the Society's Charter silver medal for 2001, ED MALLINSON.
Mr Mallinson told the AGM that he had been a branch
secretary in three branches continuously since 1978. The system gave pharmacists
the opportunity to get together in a professional environment to discuss
matters of mutual interest and to learn from one another. Although the
centres for postgraduate pharmacy education had taken away their postgraduate
role, the branches still had an important part to play in influencing
the policy makers at Lambeth. Members should use the branch communication
links, rather than the letters columns of The Pharmaceutical Journal,
to air their differences and to transmit their messages of disapproval
and approval to the Council. He despaired of pharmacists' propensity to
air their dirty linen in public. They should channel their efforts into
supporting each other rather than bickering among themselves.
Presenting Mr Mallinson with his award, the PRESIDENT
said that the silver medal recognised outstanding services rendered by
a member locally or to a specific sector of the profession. Edward Mallinson
had made his career in hospital pharmacy. He had been appointed district
pharmaceutical officer for Perth and Kinross in 1978 and chief administrative
pharmaceutical officer (now specialist in pharmaceutical public health)
for Lanarkshire in 1984.
His outstanding contribution to pharmacy had been
in the field of administration and management. His dedication was beyond
doubt and his work had greatly benefited patient care as well as the profession
of pharmacy as a whole. His advice was always knowledgeable and given
quietly and succinctly. His knowledge and manner made him an excellent
ambassador for pharmacy among related professions.
Mr MALLINSON said that he would not be receiving
the medal were it not for the help and encouragement of many others, including
those who had taught him as an undergraduate and employers who had had
faith in him. None of his achievements would have been possible without
the support of his wife Diana (also a pharmacist) and their daughters,
and of his father and late mother.
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