The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7214 p316
7 September 2002

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Pharmacist picked to lead influential medicines strategy group in Wales

A new group is being set up in Wales to advise the Welsh Health Minister on strategic medicines management and prescribing issues. Zoë Gross (on the staff of The Journal) talks to Professor Roger Walker who was appointed chairman of the group this week

An All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) is in the process of being set up by the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services. The formation of the group follows a recommendation made by the task and finish group on prescribing, in a report issued in 2001, that such a group, accountable to the National Assembly, be established on a formal basis. The task and finish group recommended that the strategy group should provide advice in an effective, efficient and transparent manner to those organisations and individuals that have responsibilities around strategic medicines management and prescribing. And the remit of the newly formed AWMSG is just that.

Professor Roger Walker, director of pharmaceutical public health for Gwent Health Authority, was appointed chairman of the group this week. He explains: "We had informal groups in the past which involved directors of public health medicine and directors of pharmaceutical public health, but they did not link formally with the Assembly." The AWMSG will have a variety of roles and responsibilities but will primarily address strategic developments in prescribing that relate to Wales. It will work alongside the National Horizon Scanning Centre, the pharmaceutical industry, the National Prescribing Centre in England and local research and ethics committees. The AWMSG is to make the Assembly aware of developments in drugs and prescribing and ensure that a consistent cost-effective approach to prescribing is in place across Wales.

Chairman's Role

Professor Walker was appointed after he responded to an open advertisement and will serve on the group's committee for three years, following which he will be eligible for re-appointment for an additional term of office. His role as chairman will involve identifying the agenda, relaying information during AWMSG meetings and making recommendations to the Minister for Health and Social Services in Wales.

What does he think about being the first chairman of this group? "It is an incredibly exciting and challenging position. I am proud and honoured to be the first chairman but also proud that the person is a pharmacist." He says that he wanted to take on the role as he has a desire to "have a very clear and transparent decision-making system in place for the use of medicines across Wales". One of the advantages of being chairman of the AWMSG is that he will be involved in medicines management and prescribing issues in Wales at every step and can influence the direction they go in. "I think that pharmacists have a unique combination of scientific and clinical knowledge and skills and that puts them in a very strong position. We understand the product, the patient and the prescriber," he says.

Professor Walker's areas of interest have been in prescribing, public health and clinical pharmacy and he says that his work in these areas, as well as being on a number of committees, has stood him in good stead for his new role. In 1979, he was appointed teacher-practitioner at Sunderland Polytechnic and in 1990 he took up the joint position of running the postgraduate diploma and masters degree in clinical pharmacy courses at Cardiff University and being a clinical pharmacist at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.

He has been in his current post at Gwent HA for the past eight years as well as being professor of pharmacy practice at the Welsh school of pharmacy. He is currently a member of the Medicines Commission and of the Gwent drug and therapeutics committee as well as director of the Pharmacy Healthcare Scheme. He also edits a text- book of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics.

Opportunity for pharmacy

There is "a real opportunity for pharmacy to play a key part in the agenda in Wales," Professor Walker adds. However, he says that an agenda has not yet been set. "It would be premature to suggest what the issues are. But some of them are fairly predictable," he says. "One has to be to reduce inequalities and postcode prescribing."

The agenda will be a public agenda and determined by the health care professions in Wales. "We are just going to have to listen to both the health care professions and the public about what the issues are. I think it is a great opportunity to feed directly into a minister and give what will hopefully be sound advice on prescribing issues," he says.

The public will be allowed to attend meetings and minutes of meetings will made available to them. "I think this is a very bold move from the Government." The public will know the advice that the health minister is given and what action is subsequently taken. "So it is a matter of being open, honest and transparent."

Professor Walker comments that the work of the AWSMG is "not in any way going to duplicate or conflict with the work of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. The NICE agenda is a separate agenda". However, he says that issues for discussion may occur when a new drug is introduced, when a drug has not yet been reviewed by NICE or when a drug is being reviewed by NICE but publication of the appraisal is some months away. "And, of course, there is the occasional NICE decision which may not be supported by prescribers in Wales. However, it is not envisaged that such a situation will happen frequently".

The committee will meet for the first time in October and is expected to meet quarterly throughout the year, but more frequently to start with. Professor Walker will be supported in decisions made during meetings by a committee of individuals with considerable knowledge and expertise in their own rights, including clinicians and pharmacists. "So while there is going to be 'thinking on your feet', the decisions will be evidence-based where possible," he says.