Idea that pharmacists can leave premises accepted
Pharmacy technicians will need training to take on additional roles |
Key pharmacy organisations have given a cautious response to two suggestions from the Government about the future roles and responsibilities of the pharmacy team. The organisations have, with some provisos, accepted that in future there may be times when a pharmacist can leave the pharmacy during normal working hours.
But they have come out firmly against another suggestion from Whitehall
that a pharmacist should in future be able to have responsibility for
more than one pharmacy.
The views of the profession were made public this week after the closing
date for comments on the Department of Health consultation
document for
England “Making the best use of the pharmacy workforce” which
was published before Christmas (PJ, 18/25 December 2004, p873).
The document focused on the future of personal control and supervision
in the context of new skill mix and working relationships between pharmacists
and technicians.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society responded to the consultation by saying
that the underlying principles of any new ways of working must be professional
accountability, accessibility and safety.
It added that a pharmacist should continue to have professional responsibility
for only one pharmacy but it did give the green light to lifting current
restrictions which prevent a pharmacist leaving the pharmacy during working
hours. The Society said a pharmacist could leave the pharmacy “for
short periods of time” to have a break or to spend time on professional
activities. But safeguards must be in place to ensure that access to
pharmaceutical services is not compromised.
The Society said: “Pharmacies should not operate for prolonged
periods without the presence of a pharmacist and the professionally accountable
pharmacist must be contactable and must be able to justify absence from
the pharmacy.”
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee also accepted that
a pharmacist might in future be able to leave the pharmacy but only on
condition that the individual is still able to offer telephone advice
when necessary.
The PSNC said a pharmacist had to be in the pharmacy for 40 hours a week — the
contracted hours to meet the obligations of the new community pharmacy
contract. Time in the pharmacy outside those hours should be classified
as “voluntary” and should not require physical presence in
the pharmacy, it suggested. A notice informing patients when a pharmacist
was away from the pharmacy should be displayed, it said.
Both the National Pharmaceutical Association and the Guild of Healthcare
Pharmacists urged caution on any new changes to the personal control
and supervision of pharmacies. The guild said there was always a public
expectation that a pharmacist would be present in the pharmacy.
There was general support from pharmacy organisations for pharmacists
to be able to delegate some services to other trained staff. The guild
and NPA both agreed that technicians who take on extra clinical responsibility
would need “significant” extra training.
The Society, however, said: “Robust protocols must clearly define
whom tasks should be delegated to and stipulate when a pharmacist’s
personal intervention is required.”
Some duties such as certain aspects of dispensing, offering advice to
other health professionals and some parts of the enhanced and advanced
services in the new contract should never be delegated, it said.
Society p341 |
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