The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7267 p360
20 September 2003

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Minister announces £1m funding for training technicians and assistants

Health Minister Rosie Winterton announced new funding for pharmacy technician training in her address to the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Harrogate this week. She said that feedback from the discussion document ‘Pharmacy workforce in the new NHS’ revealed overwhelming support for making greater use of the skills of pharmacy technicians and other staff, in order to release pharmacists for more clinical activities. However, there was concern about the cost of training.

“For community pharmacy, we will be looking to address this within the proposed new contractual framework. In the meantime, however, I am pleased to announce that the Department of Health will, as a first step, make available to contractors an initial contribution of an additional £1m this year to support the training of pharmacy technicians and assistants,” she said.

In addition, she announced that a consultation document will be issued next year to examine the possibility of some pharmacy technicians supplying medicines without the direct supervision of a pharmacist. But the Minister added: “A pharmacist will still always be required to be legally and professionally accountable for the activities within each pharmacy.” She said that she was pleased that the Society had decided to register technicians.

The Minister also made announcements about medicines management.

Minister’s address, p372