The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7218 p468
5 October 2002

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Lifting the lid on supervision [more]
CPD has arrived [more]

Lifting the lid on supervision

The Department of Health skill mix report, "Pharmacy workforce in the new NHS", is a slim, innocuous-looking document. But do not be lulled into thinking its cover reflects its contents. It is a discussion document, slipped out by the Health Minister at the tail-end of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, that opens the lid, once again, on the supervision debate (p480). And for that reason alone its appearance on the pharmacy political stage is set to make all other issues that have been hogging the limelight slip into the shadows.

In a nutshell, the document recommends that better use should be made of the skills and professionalism of pharmacists by giving technicians in hospitals and the community greater autonomy and responsibility for all aspects of the supply of medicines.

Many pharmacists will welcome this proposal seeing an opportunity for them to be able to offer a wider range of pharmaceutical services. Others will be downright scared because of the implication that medicines will be dispensed without a pharmacist necessarily being on the premises.

Comments have to be made by the end of December, so time is short. In the next few weeks, The Journal will examine different parts of the document in detail, giving pharmacists an opportunity to comment on these sections in turn.

The prospects are challenging and complicated, but times have moved on since the issue was last discussed in a serious way by the profession at a special general meeting in 1989. There are many issues now on the agenda — ranging from regulation of pharmacy technicians and other support staff to medicines management — that were barely thought about then.

Hospital pharmacists will welcome the proposals as regularising what they already do, but community pharmacists, already overwhelmed by uncertainties, are likely to be more cautious. However, provided that patient safety can be assured that any development, for example, is not a licence for one pharmacist to be in charge of multiple premises, the opportunities should outweigh the drawbacks.

There is, of course, one major proviso: the Government must finance the change in practice properly. It would be unacceptable for it to top slice the global sum (on the grounds that technicians are cheaper) and hand over the balance to primary care trusts for them to hand out to those pharmacists who wish to offer different pharmaceutical services.

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CPD has arrived

Continuing professional development has arrived, not quite like Beaujolais Nouveau, but still with a present for everyone — a videotape explaining what CPD is all about. Journal staff who have seen it are impressed, and at 67p per copy, it is an economical way to spread the message. So look out for your videocassette in the next few weeks (p478).

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