No time for complacency
Our latest batch of Pharmaceutical Care Award finalists revealed one
interesting development: supplementary prescribing pharmacists are beginning
to make a
significant impact. Of the four runners-up and three winners for the
2005 awards presented last week at Apothecaries’ Hall in London,
no fewer than four teams had a
supplementary prescriber at the heart of their work (p43 PDF (150K)).
The other significant dimension to the finalists’ work was the focus on
long-term conditions: asthma and diabetes scored highly on this count.
For The Pharmaceutical Journal this is especially gratifying because, once again, the awards
can be seen to be reflecting the best in pharmacy and to be rewarding leading
practitioners. Representatives from our joint sponsors seemed equally satisfied: Digby
Emson, chairman of the Company Chemists’Association,
and Stephen Ross, vice-president specialist business units
at GlaxoSmithKline, both mentioned their pleasure at
being involved with such achievements.
However, this is no time for complacency.Niall
Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund and keynote
speaker at the awards conference, pointed out that it was
all very well being at the forefront, but if leading
practitioners fail to carry the rank and file along with them, any ground-breaking work
would not have the impact it deserved (p35).
Leading other pharmacists and influencing other health professionals and patients are,
without doubt, the challenges for pharmacy at the moment.
Some of this can be achieved by research.To make most impact in the NHS pharmacists
must demonstrate some of the following: that their interventions make a difference to the
health of patients, that they keep patients out of hospital or stop them being readmitted
soon after discharge, that they reduce the workload of other health professionals and that
the service they provide is cost-effective. If they can demonstrate that they provide a
service that not only is beneficial to patients and has limited impact on costs but also
provides added value that is not forthcoming from other members of the health team —
even better.These are the services that are most likely to be adopted by other pharmacists,
and to be welcomed by hospitals, primary care organisations and commissioners of care.
Although developing such services may be rewarding in the long term, it will demand a
great deal of effort in the short term and The Journal does not underestimate the
difficulties.Three years ago, however, only a handful of pharmacists dreamt of being
supplementary prescribers and, yet, this year the Pharmaceutical Care Awards has put them
firmly centre stage.How much more will be achieved in the next three years? We look
forward with interest.
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