Innovative pharmacists need followers or their efforts will be wasted
Pharmacists with innovative ideas need to ensure
that others are following their lead or
they risk squandering their efforts, Niall
Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund,
said at the Pharmaceutical Care Awards 2005
conference (PDF, 150K)in London last week.
Speaking to the finalists after their presentations,
he said:“You are the innovators and you
are at the leading edge.The
real trick is to make sure
you are leading an army
and an army is following.” Otherwise, he said, pharmacists
will simply end up
repeatedly doing innovative
work without it being
taken up by anyone else.
Mr Dickson acknowledged
that other professions
also have a part to
play in this. “Obviously
there is an issue around
engaging your colleagues and there is also a
question about engaging other professionals,
not least the GPs, and getting them to accept
that the roles are changing as well,” he said. “What we are actually talking about is providing
more effective care. It is not about
making pharmacists feel good. It is about providing
a better quality of care,” he said.
However, he said he was reasonably confident
that health care professionals could all
engage with these changes to the health care
system. “I think that you are always going to
get a vanguard of people who are at the front
and who are leading, but I am reasonably optimistic
that these changes will happen and
we’ll look back in 10 to 15 years and wonder
what all the fuss was about.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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