Society is fit for the job
Maybe Andy Burnham will turn out to be the best thing for the profession since Lord Hunt, who launched the Pharmacy Plan in 2001. One of the
first decisions Mr Burnham, newly appointed minister in charge of pharmacy
matters (among other things), has made has been to put on hold the
need for primary care trusts to hold lists of employee and locum pharmacists — in
addition to pharmacy contractors. The proposals would also have given
PCTs powers to decide whether any health care professional on their
lists was fit for practice.
This decision has been widely supported by all the major national pharmacy
bodies (p581). Until Mr Burnham made the decision, pharmacists in England
were faced with the prospect of having to let PCTs within whose boundaries
they worked know by the end of June that they were fit for practice.
Whose muddled thinking led to this suggestion? First, it was not clear
whether it would be sufficient to make a declaration to one PCT or, in
the case of locums who might be engaged in a number, every PCT. Secondly,
with the Section 60 Order and associated Rules (p587) already likely
to have a historic impact on regulation by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society,
the Department of Health could be accused of being
over-zealous. Thirdly, if the as yet unpublished Foster review on the
regulation of
non-medical health professions also demands more, superfluous change,
pharmacists might begin to feel they were back at school and being asked
to tuck in their shirts or lengthen their skirts.
Mr Burnham has wisely “decided to defer the introduction of NHS
supplementary list provisions for community pharmacists, pending the
outcome of the consultation and consideration of future requirements
for professional regulation as a whole”.
Let us hope that when he comes round to making a further announcement
he will throw the whole idea away (along with the Foster review). Protecting
the public is what the Government is after and the Society, with its
proven track record, is the organisation fit for the job.
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Be vigilant about adverse drug reactions
Amorolfine, the latest POM-to-P switch, comes at the same time as the British Medical Association raised concerns about the need to report adverse drug reactions and the impact on increased patient access to medicines in general (p580).
This is a timely reminder that pharmacists are in the best position to ask patients
about all medicines, remedies or supplements they are taking and to be vigilant
about reporting any suspected reaction.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal