The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7173 p666
10 November 2001

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Supervision debate will run and run

Earlier this week, the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and members of the Society's staff discussed the thorny question of supervision. The discussions were of a highly preliminary nature and no conclusions were drawn; the meeting was held as a first step following a presentation at the October Council meeting by Helen Darracott, of the Professional Standards Directorate (PJ, 20 October p577). This is a debate that will run and run.

There was consensus on many issues, not least that in five to 10 years' time pharmacy will be and look very different from how it does today. The revolution will be driven by changes and improvements in technology, by the Government's agenda for improving medicines-taking throughout the National Health Service and by pharmacy technicians knocking at the profession's door — among many things.

Without doubt, hospital pharmacy will be able to demonstrate most easily the benefits to patients of demanding changes to the regulations on supervision: pharmacists work in teams, they can be supported by highly trained pharmacy technicians and hospital pharmacy can relatively easily build in error reporting systems and risk reduction protocols.

The issues are the same for community pharmacies, even though the solutions may be different. The trouble for some independent contractors is that the whole question of supervision and new services is muddied by the current remuneration model — they simply cannot see how they will make a living if they do not hang on to the technical aspects of dispensing and all that that entails.

They do, without any question, have a case that the Government needs to answer with a properly funded system that will allow even the smallest operator to develop services that will benefit patients.

But it is not the Society's job to deal with the Government in this respect, although its discussions and decisions should inform the process. The Society's job is to ensure that the regulations governing the development of new services are as robust as the ones that have hitherto served the profession so well on the question of supervision, and the supply and dispensing of medicines. And it is also the Society's job is to promote best practice and high standards as pharmacy moves forward.

If members of the profession believe that those aspects will be challenging, they are not half as difficult as the Society's role will be in managing the changes.

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