The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7204 p933
29 June 2002

Scottish department

Pharmacy and voluntary sector should be partners in health promotion

Pharmacy in Scotland should form a partnership with the voluntary sector in implementing the Government's pharmacy strategy, according to a speaker at the annual general meeting of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Scottish Department on 19 June.

Helen Tyrrell, director of Voluntary Health Scotland, told the meeting that there was evidence of a low uptake of health promotion advice in pharmacies, even though pharmacists were in a prime position to supply it. Further, young people favoured pharmacies for advice. The provision of information was a key area for a partnership with the voluntary sector, which produced a wealth of patient information. Such information could be more widely distributed through pharmacy premises, and the voluntary sector could inform clients of an enhanced pharmacy role in offering support.

She added that the voluntary sector welcomed the many "close-to-home" pharmacies and the walk-in healthy living centres that were highlighted in "The right medicine: a strategy for pharmaceutical care".

Ms Tyrrell said that Scotland had 44,000 voluntary organisations and the sector supported a turnover of £2bn. To maximise the sector's impact, Voluntary Health Scotland had been established two years ago as a partnership between the Health Education Board for Scotland and the Scottish Council for Volunteer Organisations. It provided a single voice for the great diversity of voluntary and community health agencies in Scotland, ranging from community development neighbourhood projects to the many support groups and charities working with people affected by specific illness or disability.

Ms Tyrrell voiced concern that "The right medicine: a strategy for pharmaceutical care" made no mention of complementary therapies. This topic was of great concern to many voluntary organisations, especially those dealing with mental health and other long-term conditions.

She thought that the pharmacy presented "a familiar unthreatening environment" in which to explore the complementary option. Pharmacists could inform, advise and assist with quality assurance, thus facilitating informed decision making by clients.

Ms Tyrrell also highlighted the problem of prescription charges, an issue that could not be separated from the strategy, in the voluntary sector's view. She said that housebound people with long-term conditions were often not exempt from prescription charges, and they often did not know about prepayment certificates or could not afford them. There was also evidence that people discarded some prescriptions on cost grounds.

Ms Tyrrell requested the support of the Society in Scotland in making the government aware of such difficulties and seeking reductions in the prescription tax, as had happened in Wales.

World Cup lesson

The surprise results delivered by small nations during the 2002 football World Cup demonstrated the value of devolution and the advantage of allowing the richness of different cultures, beliefs and values to flourish, the annual general meeting was told.

Giving her final address as chairman of the Scottish Executive for 2000–02, Alison Strath told the meeting that devolution was about making a difference, about Scottish solutions to Scottish problems.

However, it was important not to have a myopic view of pharmacy practice. Pharmacists had to embrace new ways of working. They needed to be effective in all that they sought to do, to be inclusive in their approach, working with others in NHS Scotland, local authorities and the voluntary sector. And they had to recognise the challenges of being part of a Britain-wide profession that had to deal with a devolved administration that had powers to set policy.

As devolution unfolded, there was a clear need for a fundamental review of how the profession was represented and how the Society in Scotland operated. This would ensure that it was empowered to respond to the needs of the Scottish Parliament and its Ministers in a way that represented the views of pharmacy practitioners working in Scotland.

Since devolution, the Society in Scotland had engaged with the new political framework, seeking opportunities to promote pharmacy and engage with the modernisation programme. Briefing papers, regular meetings with ministers and members of the Scottish Parliament and attendance at party conferences had enabled it to raise the profile of the profession. It had not done this in isolation but had, for example, engaged with all the professional bodies in primary care through Scotland's Primary Care Partnership Forum.

On "The right medicine: a strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland", Miss Strath said that it was the people of Scotland who would benefit most from its implementation — and that had to be good for pharmacy. The strategy had to be seen in the context of a national effort to improve health, to achieve better access to services and to make the best use of available resources.

The strategy gave pharmacists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play their part in improving the pharmaceutical care of their patients. And that meant accepting responsibility for the outcomes of their actions individually and collectively.