Pharmacy needs more resources
Pharmacy has now gone beyond the crossroads it was stalled at for many years, the President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Dr Gill Hawksworth, told the BPC on 17 September.
In her conference address, the President told the Health Minister, Rosie
Winterton: “If you only take with you one key message about our
profession from today’s meeting, I hope it is this: we want to
move forward on behalf of patients. Please give us the framework to do
so.”
Pharmacists should be developing roles and services, the President said. “But
we will not move forward unless there can be an environment and a framework
that encourages, not stifles, innovation. Pharmacists can only take up
their roles in prescribing, medicines management, repeat dispensing and
other new, beneficial functions if they have the time and resource. We
hope that you will underpin your intentions with tangible motivation
and support for pharmacists who want to take up the challenges of moving
ahead.”
Dr Hawksworth added that the Society welcomed moves towards an NHS contract
for community pharmacy that rewarded quality. “But those who commission
local health services must be in a position to compensate pharmacists
for their time and for their support staff’s time or, with the
best will in the world, we cannot make progress,” she said. “We
all have high hopes for the real contribution that pharmacists can make
to the future NHS. The NHS needs it and pharmacists want it. Let us work
together to ensure that our joint aspirations become reality. We need
to identify threats and potential barriers and work to remove them,” the
President concluded.
President’s address, p371 |
