The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7218 p469
5 October 2002

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
Pharmacy Workforce in the New NHS (more)

Skill mix report proposes relaxation of supervision in community pharmacies

The Department of Health's long awaited report on skill mix has reopened the debate on supervision in community pharmacies (see News Feature, p480).

The most controversial element of the report, which forecasts that pharmacy technicians will take on extended roles as pharmacists develop new roles for themselves, proposes the relaxation of supervision within community pharmacies. It says that this would be achieved through "protocol medicines supply schemes". Such schemes would need changes to pharmacists' terms of service and to legislation. Any relaxation of supervision would apply across the United Kingdom.

The National Pharmaceutical Association and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee have welcomed the skill mix report, but have expressed guarded concerns about its contents. The NPA said that patient safety had to underpin the skill mix debate and that technician registration should be introduced on a voluntary basis. The PSNC said that any changes to the balance of work within pharmacies would involve costs that needed to be funded.

The report (PDF 100K), entitled "Pharmacy workforce in the new NHS: making the best use of staff to deliver the NHS pharmacy programme", was unveiled at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester last week (PJ, 28 September, p432). It covers four main areas: extended roles for pharmacists, parallel development of the role of pharmacy technicians, development of training and regulation of pharmacy support staff, and pilot medicines supply schemes which will remove the need for pharmacists to supervise the dispensing and supply of medicines.

The new roles for pharmacists are either those which are currently being piloted, such as medicines management, or those, such as supplementary prescribing, that are expected to start shortly. Some of these are being provided through community pharmacies and some in primary care, and the report states that the NHS is committed both to a strong community service and to having pharmacists' advice readily available in general practitioners' surgeries.

The report notes how pharmacy technicians have already taken on many wider clinical roles in hospitals, including medicines information, taking medication histories and discharge planning. This is in addition to the role of checking technicians in supervising the dispensing of medicines within hospital pharmacy departments.

Such roles are beginning to appear in community pharmacy, but problems associated with costs, training, a more restrictive legal framework and a reluctance by pharmacists to delegate roles have restricted progress.

The skill mix report says regulation of technicians and dispensing assistants is necessary in order to make better use of pharmacy support staff and to provide assurance to patients. There is support in principle for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society becoming the regulatory body for pharmacy staff but the possibility of a wider health care support staff regulatory body is also raised.

The Department of Health is seeking comments on its proposals, which it says do not represent settled policy, by 31 December. Comments can be sent to Diana Kenworthy, Medicines, Pharmacy and Industry Group, Room 160, Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS (e-mail diana.kenworthy@doh.gsi.gov.uk).

Comment, p468
PJ Online links