Breakfast session: An emerging role: professional executive committee pharmacists on PCTs
What pharmacists can offer the professional executive committees of
primary care trusts was discussed at a breakfast meeting at the British
Pharmaceutical Conference on 16 September. Clare Bellingham (on the staff
of The Journal) reports The role of pharmacists on professional executive committees (PECs)
of primary care trusts is not just emerging, but has emerged, participants
at a breakfast session on 16 September were told.
Colette McCreedy, director of pharmacy practice, National Pharmaceutical
Association, reported that there are now 165 PEC pharmacists and that,
after doctors and nurses, pharmacists are now the most represented health
professionals on PECs.
“As PCTs control increasingly more of the NHS budget, there is no doubt
of the importance of having an effective voice on PECs,” she said.
Michael Dixon: pharmacists are making a difference |
Role for pharmacists
Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance (a representational organisation
for primary care and PCTs), said that previous statements about putting
doctors and nurses into the “driving seat” must have been
offensive to the rest of primary care. “Those days are over and
now we
see pharmacists taking their rightful place and making an enormous difference
to the way the NHS and primary care is run,” he said.
Pharmacists could offer PECs an enormous amount. “The obvious one
is their specialist knowledge of pharmacy which is clearly needed. But
they also have specialist knowledge of the local population that is different
from that of doctors: pharmacists see people on their own terms so have
a different perspective from other professionals,” said Dr Dixon.
Other strengths of pharmacists include the fact that they are entrepreneurs
and are independent practitioners, both of which give them a “can-do” approach.
In addition, pharmacies are part of an open market and so pharmacists
can provide insight about business to the rest of the primary care team,
Dr Dixon pointed out.
Potential areas that PEC pharmacists could be involved in include the
redesign of pharmacy services, prescribing formulary design, addressing
the local health agenda, clinical governance and integrating orthodox
and complementary medicines.
However, Dr Dixon added a word of caution: “You have got to be
corporate when joining a PEC.” He explained that pharmacists would
not be appointed solely to represent pharmacy. “You have to be
fair to your peer group but remember that you are there for the public
not your profession,” he said.
Working in practice
How the role of PEC pharmacists works in practice was described by Iain
Tulley, chief executive, and Alison Hayes, PEC pharmacist, both of
East Devon PCT.
Ms Hayes explained that she was appointed as a member of the PEC in 2001
and has recently had her contract extended for another two years. She
is involved in various working groups within the PCT including the prescribing
task group, the pharmacy development group, the pharmacy forum and the
clinical governance committee.
“I am a community pharmacist. That is my day job,” she said. “So
one of the biggest challenges for me is keeping up to date clinically
when PCT business takes up all my spare time.” The PCT pays Ms
Hayes’ employer an honorarium to cover locum costs when she needs
to be away from
the pharmacy for PCT business.
“It is important to get these arrangements in place before taking
up a PCT role,” she advised other pharmacists.
 Iain Tulley: PCT needs to provide financial support
|
Mr Tulley is supportive, believing that he has to invest resources to
reap benefits. “If the PCT wants to involve people then we need
to pay,” he commented. “I would not expect anyone to come
to work tomorrow for less than they are getting today: it is important
to build on a baseline.”
Some of the skills Ms Hayes said that she has had to develop include
team building and influencing skills for use at meetings. “You
have to learn to cope with failure,” she added. “As the lone
pharmacy voice it is easy to feel that you are not getting anywhere.
It helps to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. You need
to be realistic about how much you can do.”
Alison Hayes: be realistic about how much you
can do
|
One thing Ms Hayes found useful was developing a standardised format
for bids. “When I was first appointed I spent lots of time preparing
papers and bids so the standardised format has helped,” she said.
Ms Hayes said that her closest working relationships are with the PCT
prescribing adviser and with the local pharmaceutical committee. “At
the moment I take the lead for pharmacy but the role is becoming more
strategic,” she said. “So perhaps we need a pharmacist lead
in the way that there is a nursing lead.”
She added that some PCTs are asking prescribing leads to take on the
role of pharmacy lead in addition but she warned that they might not
be the right people to do this if they had not had experience of community
pharmacy.
Finally, Ms Hayes said that it is important that members of PCTs are
practising clinicians. “What tends to happen over time is that
they take on more managerial roles,” she explained. And this was
a good reason for involving more practising pharmacists.
Georgina Craig, head of professional development at the NPA, said that
it is important to recognise that there is a difference between the strategic
role of the PEC pharmacist and the role of employees of the organisations,
such as pharmaceutical advisers. “There are some things that PEC
members can do, or fight for, that it is hard or inappropriate to do
as an employee,” she said. “Every PCT deserves good people
in both roles.” |
