The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7322 p615
23 October 2004

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Public health integral to pharmacy contract

The 2004 British Pharmaceutical Conference and Exhibition “Medicines: from cell to society” took place at Manchester International Convention Centre from 27–29 September

BPC 2004 summary

The Government wants pharmacists to give healthy lifestyle messages to patients based on the prescriptions they are dispensing, Gul Root, principal pharmaceutical officer, Department of Health, told conference delegates. This would be just one aspect of the expanded public health role expected of pharmacists under the new pharmacy contract.

She acknowledged that some pharmacists were already delivering public health messages to patients and were adopting public health initiatives.

However, there were inconsistencies in the spread of services. “The examples are sporadic and anecdotal. Pharmacy needs to do these things systematically,” she said.