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Capacity planning
More work still needed
From Ms J. Low, MRPharmS, and others
We read with interest the paper (PDF (60K) entitled “Capacity planning for
chemotherapy” by Karen Shield (PJ, 17 January, p61), which promised
to address the limitations listed on our previously published paper (PDF 60K) “The
development of a capacity planning model for pharmaceutical services
to cancer patients” (PJ, 15 February 2003, p239.
Although we believe the model does address complexity of manipulation,
we think that it has gone no further than our published work in addressing
the grades of staff required to carry out the dispensing process. Similar
to our model, it only defines numbers of pharmacists, technicians and
assistants required. Further work is still needed to define levels of
seniority required within these staff grades to undertake chemotherapy-related
tasks safely and effectively. In addition, the model does not consider
complexity outwith the manipulation process. For example, there is no
consideration of increased documentation requirements associated with
clinical trials.
We would like to highlight that the two models cannot be compared like
with like, since the responsibilities for staff members differ. For example,
in Ms Shield’s model the clinical check of the prescription is
included within the preparation time and in our model this is included
within the clinical pharmacists’ duties.
We would like to congratulate Ms Shield on the work she has done to include
a consideration of complexity of manipulation, which is indeed a deficiency
within our model.
Joanne Low
Senior Pharmacist – Oncology,
Forth Valley Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Jill Macintyre
Lead Pharmacist,
South East Scotland Cancer Network
Laura McIver
Chief Pharmacist,
Forth Valley Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Norman Lannigan
Chief Pharmacist,
NHS Lothian University Hospitals Division |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
* PDF files on PJ Online require Acrobat
Reader 4 or later.