Action on access to medical information
The Society is in negotiations with the NHS National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) over whether community pharmacists can have full access. It is also attempting to raise with the Department of Health the issue of whether community pharmacists may be given automatic access to medical libraries.
At the October
Council meeting, the Council heard that David Pruce, the
Society’s director of practice and quality improvement, had been
investigating the matter since Sultan Dajani raised it at the August
Council meeting (PJ, 14 August 2004, p239). Mr Pruce said that access
to some NeLH resources is restricted to people who have what is known
as an Athens password, which is available to NHS staff.
The Society is in high-level negotiations with the NeLH over whether
community pharmacists can also have access to Athens passwords. On medical
libraries generally, the picture is by no means clear. Some allow access
and others do not. The Society is pursuing the matter with the Department
and wants a clear statement on what the policy is. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal