Why pharmacists can be confident about the future
Over the coming months, various articles will be published about the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's directorates and their work to strengthen pharmacy's position. In the first article, Gill
Hawksworth, President of the Society, describes its professional leadership and development work  A huge agenda faces the profession as we tackle the work that will
enable us to meet the needs of the future. As a leadership and development
body,
we are involved in a host of activities to ensure that the profession
is positioned to make its full contribution. As a regulator, we need
to ensure that our powers and processes stand up to scrutiny, supporting
a safe and effective pharmacy service and the profession’s reputation.
As well as looking to the powers and constitution of the Society, the
Council wanted to ensure that the staff structure fully met the needs
of the organisation. So the Council asked the Secretary and Registrar,
Ann Lewis, to produce proposals that would align the structure with the
work that needs to be done. Working with her executive group of directors,
Miss Lewis devised proposals for the directorates that the Council agreed
in December 2003. A review of arrangements in Scotland and Wales and
other possible devolved administrations is to take place during 2004
(PJ, 14 February, p197).
Seven directors
There are now seven directors who manage specific areas of activity
but who are fully committed, through the executive group, to work across
the directorates to promote beneficial “joined-up” working.
They and their teams play an important role in helping the Society
deliver the profession’s strategy for the future of pharmacy.
This article seeks to highlight aspects of the work of the Practice
and Quality Improvement Directorate that contributes towards the delivery
of the profession’s strategy in the context of the Government’s
plans for pharmacy in England. David Pruce is the director of the team,
which includes practice, quality improvement, ethics and leadership development.
The team works across the range of issues and activities that support
pharmacists in the development of quality professional practice, with
the ultimate benefit to patients. Recently, it has been working to involve
the profession in the delivery of the various national service frameworks,
and the profession is now fully integrated into these important programmes.
Medicines management and the treatment of older people in the NHS are,
of course, priorities. Work is also currently under way to update the
Society’s practice guidance on diabetes, chronic obstructive airways
disease and asthma, and mental health.
The roles of the Society's directors and secretaries |
Ann Lewis
Secretary and Registrar |
Works with the Council and the
directorate teams to provide leadership and management for
the delivery of the vision and strategy for the profession |
Philip Green
Deputy Secretary and
Registrar and Director of Education and Registration |
Works to ensure a profession that
is educated and trained through lifelong learning to deliver
the vision for pharmacy; maintains a quality register that
earns public confidence |
Robert Darracott
Director of Corporate
and Strategic Development |
Works within central administration,
corporate governance and human resources to ensure that the
organisation is able to deliver on the challenges ahead in
the strategy set by the Council |
Beverley Parkin
Director of Public
Affairs and Communications |
Works with a range of stakeholders
to promote the contribution that pharmacists can make to society
and to instill confidence in the profession |
David Pruce
Director of Practice
and Quality Improvement |
Works to bring forward practice
developments and support pharmacists in the delivery of quality
professional practice |
Mandie Lavin
Director of Fitness
to Practise and Legal Affairs |
Ensures public confidence in the
profession and in its ability to regulate its own affairs and
ensures that pharmacists are competent and fit to practise |
Nigel Graham
Acting Secretary,
Scottish Department |
Works to realise the Council’s strategy in Scotland |
Cath O’Brien
Secretary,
Welsh Executive |
Works to realise the Council’s strategy in Wales |
Charles Fry
Director of Publications |
Promotes excellence in pharmaceutical
publishing and helps provide the intellectual support that
pharmacists need to deliver the vision for pharmacy |
Bernard Kelly
Director of Resources |
Harnesses the Society’s resources to best effect so that they underpin the Council’s strategy |
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New developments
The Society works closely with agencies such as the National Institute
for Clinical Excellence, the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection,
the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and the National Treatment
Agency, in order to make sure that pharmacy is involved in all the
new developments.
In our 1997 strategy “Building the future”, the Society said
that it wanted pharmacists to be able to prescribe in a wide range of
circumstances. We have come a long way since then with the establishment
of pharmacist supplementary prescribing. This directorate is now leading
the work on developing an independent prescribing role for pharmacists,
an agenda that I, as President, am actively supporting through my work
with external stakeholders.
Repeat dispensing is another area of interest and I am leading a group
looking at the risk management of repeat dispensing with the help of
the NPSA.
Delivering the vision is dependent on many other strands of Government
policy. Among these is information technology, and the major overhaul
of NHS IT is highly significant for pharmacy.
Access for all pharmacists to patient information through the NHSnet
is a key development that we are pressing for and I am keen to progress
this at every opportunity. I am pleased to say that there is support
for pharmacists to have access to patient information from many of the
external stakeholders with whom we are discussing this and other issues.
It appears to be widely understood that pharmacists in the community
need this information in order to deliver the best patient outcomes.
The outcome of the Shipman inquiry may hasten this agenda since it has
been noted that pharmacists need to be in the IT loop for audit purposes. Opportunities and developments
Another exciting opportunity on the agenda is the Government’s
public health strategy. Pharmacy is heavily involved in its development
and pharmacists are working to define our role in this area. Through
public health initiatives, pharmacists have a key part to play in helping
tackle inequalities and support the development of local communities.
As medicines are newly deregulated from POM to P the move opens up opportunities
for community pharmacists to address the self care agenda. The expected
availability of statins brings with it a role in the self-management
of long-term conditions for the first time. The Society is keen to monitor
progress in this area and training and performance standards
will be crucial.
The development of leadership within the profession is crucial and the
Society is keen to see leadership training being available to pharmacists
as it is to other NHS professionals. Pharmacists who sit on the professional
executive committees of primary care trusts, pharmaceutical advisers
and pharmacy development groups all will be key to helping local leadership
developments.
At local level, it is important to monitor the work of the new clinical
governance facilitators and the progress of local Centre for Pharmacy
Postgraduate Education workshops, where national and local topics
contribute to pharmacists’ continuing professional development.
There are some potential problems arising from the huge agenda involving
an enhanced clinical role for pharmacists, not least an increase in workload,
which raises the question of patient safety. I have lost no opportunity
to state the need for sufficient underpinning resources to support the
delivery of quality services in the name of patient safety. These resources
include IT and sufficient suitably trained support staff as well as the
funding to provide appropriate infrastructure. New contract
The Council has had presentations from the Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee on the new contract and look forward to negotiations
being
completed. Additionally, it is important that pharmacists are clear about
how they can help to deliver the new GP contract locally. Whatever services
are developed at whatever level, the Society will need to set the competencies
required and the professional and ethical framework in which the service
is delivered.
Competence is a key issue in the knowledge and skills framework being
tackled currently by hospital pharmacy. The Society is working with the
Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists and others to ensure that the knowledge
and skills framework fully reflects the importance of medicines in modern
health care. Many local service development programmes are beginning
to be accredited and workplace continuing professional development programmes
are being addressed.
Pharmacists have much to be confident about. It is important, however,
that the work the Society is doing across its directorates to deliver
the vision for pharmacy is underpinned by local activity. One of the
key issues is the need to build working relationships across the interface
between primary and secondary care and with other professionals. Pharmacists
must and do work together to keep up with all the developments. The Society,
through its branch and regional network, works to support them in this.
Enhancing pharmacists’ professional confidence will maintain and
encourage public confidence in our profession. No matter what the reason,
no matter how deeply felt the cause, nothing can be more important than
that
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal