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Chairman’s call for vision and action
A call for action, strong leadership and fresh thinking
was made by the chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Scottish
Department, Alison Strath, when she gave her chairman’s report at the
department’s annual general meeting in Edinburgh on June 20. Above all,
she said, pharmacy in Scotland needed a shared strategic vision of where
it needed to be and an action plan for its implementation.
These were challenging but exciting times, Miss
Strath said, and she believed that all pharmacists in Scotland had a significant
part to play in meeting the challenges.
Miss Strath told the meeting that since devolution
the Society in Scotland had been extremely active in engaging with the
new political framework. Opportunities to promote pharmacy and to engage
with the modernisation programme had been sought with considerable success.
Building relationships with Members of the Scottish Parliament, other
health care professions and patient groups had been a core objective during
the past year. The briefing and topical papers, regular meetings with
MSPs and attendance at party political conferences had facilitated a rise
in the profession’s profile.
Anniversary
Miss Strath told the meeting that this year’s 150th
anniversary of the Society in Scotland offered a further opportunity to
raise the profile of the profession in Scotland at a time when health
care was one of the top subjects being debated in the Scottish Parliament.
In January a dinner had been held at the Palace of Holyrood House to mark
the beginning of the anniversary year and to bestow an honorary fellowship
on the Princess Royal. Miss Strath said that she was delighted to announce
that the Society in Scotland had started working with the Princess Royal
Trust for Carers to identify ways in which pharmacists could help benefit
carers.
On National Health Service matters, Miss Strath
said that the publication of “Our national plan” in December, 2000, had
provided pharmacy in Scotland with an opportunity to realise its full
potential and improve the patient’s journey. This could be achieved through
involvement in repeat prescribing schemes, medication reviews and therapeutic
monitoring. The 1,140 pharmacists in Scotland could provide a wide range
of health promotion material as well as treat minor ailments, thus providing
a convenient service to patients and reducing GPs’ workload. The extension
of pharmaceutical care schemes to include national priority areas such
as cardiovascular disease and diabetes was being discussed. There was
also a strong commitment to develop a strategy for pharmaceutical care.
Throughout the past year, as a result of a decision
by the Society’s Council, the chairman or vice-chairman of the Scottish
Executive had attended Council meetings and associated events at Lambeth.
This had allowed participation in debates that underpinned Council policy
and a sharing of the vast resource of knowledge that existed in all three
home nations. Miss Strath suggested that interdependence was of higher
value than independence. It was important that pharmacists in Scotland
did not have a myopic view of pharmacy practice but recognised the challenges
of taking an active role within “Pharmacy GB”.
Miss Strath paid tribute to the work carried out
by the Society’s branch network. The branches provided a focus for the
profession and educational matters, acting as a vital link between all
pharmacists in Scotland, members of the Scottish Executive and the Society’s
staff in Scotland.
Public health
Miss Strath’s call for action was endorsed in an
address by Professor Phil Hanlon, director of the Public Health Institute
of Scotland, who suggested that the profession could make a substantial
contribution to Scotland’s future health.
Professor Hanlon explained that the aims of his
institute were to protect and improve the health of the people of Scotland
by working with the relevant agencies and organisations to increase understanding
of the determinants of health and ill health. There was much to do, because
life expectancy in Scotland was the same as in East Germany before unification
and in Slovenia. The people of Scotland had a right to expect better than
that.
There was a tendency for people, particularly in
the west of Scotland, to adopt a fatalistic “what will be will be” approach
when faced with the possibility of serious disease. Alternatively, they
adopted the “Uncle Norman” approach — the practice of justifying a continuing
unhealthy life-style by reference to a family member who had not been
afflicted with a disease despite the presence of substantial risk factors.
Links between cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease
and the effect of statins on dementia were two areas that were under investigation
and in which pharmacists could make a contribution.
Professor Hanlon then invited the audience to suggest
ways in which pharmacy could support the aim of the institute. Responses
included monitoring blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and providing
nutritional advice and medicine reviews.
— From our Scottish correspondent
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