Celebration of pharmacy
Pharmacists and NHS Direct

Celebration of pharmacy

Excellence in pharmacy has once again been celebrated at the Pharmaceutical Care Awards ceremony, held at The Savoy at lunchtime last Friday (hence the depiction of the awards logo in the pudding, pictured on the cover).

One interesting feature of the ceremony (see pp879–883) was the preponderance of finalists from Scotland, particularly in the community care section where both finalists developed their work from the pharmaceutical model schemes introduced in November, 1999, by the health minister, Susan Deacon. These model schemes, which were for the development of pharmaceutical care for older people, palliative care and people with mental illness, clearly offer a winning formula and the schemes are to be extended to cover cardiovascular disease, diabetes and repeat prescribing. No doubt the Pharmaceutical Care Awards will see many other entries from Scotland in the years to come from groups that have developed other practices that are proven to meet patients’ needs and improve patient care.

Meanwhile, in England, in some respects two years behind Scotland, similar initiatives are just beginning to develop with the medicines management pilots, nine under the aegis of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee announced earlier this month, and a further 25 to be picked by the National Prescribing Centre in September. These pilots, however, are just the pick of the bunch and there are literally dozens of other good schemes under way in England and Wales, or just waiting for a nudge, including those not selected or considered by either the PSNC or the NPC, to get off the ground.

Next year is the 10th anniversary of the Pharmaceutical Care Awards. With so much activity in the pharmaceutical care/medicines management arena we hope that the 2001 awards will produce a bumper crop of entries and celebrate (with the ever generous support of GlaxoSmithKline) an even greater range of excellence in pharmacy.

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Pharmacists and NHS Direct

With the news that pharmacists have at last been appointed to advise the Department of Health teams on NHS Direct and walk-in centres (see p871), the role of pharmacy in the NHS is further strengthened. The appointments are long overdue. How NHS Direct could have been expected to provide a full and appropriate service without proper input from pharmacists remains a mystery. But it is time to look forward and to hope that NHS Direct, derided by GPs and some patients since its inception, can now prove its value.

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