Community pharmacy now higher priority for PCTs than in the past
Community pharmacy is developing a higher profile for primary care trusts, and it is now on directors' agendas, according to Sally Greensmith, a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council, who was speaking at a Conference session on current issues and attitudes involving primary care pharmacists (see p413).
But, although the working relationship between community pharmacists
and primary care organisations in some areas has become closer, community
pharmacists are still not sufficiently integrated into the primary care
team, Ms Greensmith said.
Primary care trusts need to recognise that community pharmacists are
primary care pharmacists as much as those directly employed by the PCTs
and it is up to pharmacists working in PCTs to help manage this change,
she added.
This is to be achieved through two-way communication. Community pharmacists
need to recognise the pressures that PCTs are under but, at the same
time, it is important that advisers who have not come from a community
pharmacy background understand the history of community pharmacy and
the service it has delivered for the National Health Service, Ms Greensmith
told the session. In addition, Ms Greensmith acknowledged that the Society
has a role to help all community pharmacists and primary care pharmacists
to be fit for the purpose that PCTs need. In order to perform this function
the Society is planning a series of roadshows to improve information
links between itself and primary care pharmacists. Venues in Scotland,
Wales and Engand are being looked at, Ms Greensmith announced. |
