Scotland funds 100 more prescriber training places
The current supplementary prescribing course in Scotland was oversubscribed |
New funding to train 100 community pharmacists in Scotland to become supplementary prescribers was announced on 21 October. All 100 places will be on the course run at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, starting before March 2004.
The funding was granted by the Scottish Executive and was negotiated
for community pharmacists by the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council.
Frank Owens, chairman of the SPGC, commented: “I am delighted that
we have secured this funding in order to allow us to extend the initiative.”
Places on the initial supplementary course had been heavily oversubscribed. “We
have been encouraged both by the uptake of places and by the positive
feedback received from many of the course participants,” Mr Owens
said. However, he recognised the frustration felt by those who had been
unsuccessful in achieving a place on the initial training course.
In the future, Mr Owens hopes that funding might be found to allow all
community pharmacists the opportunity to undertake the course. “The
ability to act as a supplementary prescriber would significantly enhance
the role of the community pharmacist in the proposed future provision
of chronic medication services. It would be helpful, therefore, to recruit
as many pharmacists as possible before rolling out the new contract,” he
said.
Bill Scott, chief pharmaceutical officer for Scotland, commented: “Pharmacy
needs ultimately to embrace independent and supplementary prescribing
as a core function and not as additional qualifications.”
New ways of working in Scotland are examined in a news
feature (see pp575–6). |
