Pharmacists should be better used by NHS
Pharmacists should be better used by the NHS, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society said this week in response to claims by four leading pharmacologists that patients are being harmed because doctors may lack knowledge of medicines.
David Pruce, director of practice and quality improvement at the Society,
said: “The training of doctors is only part of the problem. Pharmacists
undergo five years of education and training in medicines and their use,
but in many areas, the NHS does not make full use of their skills and
expertise.”
At a meeting to mark the 75th anniversary of the British Pharmacological
Society in London, Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute
for Health and Clinical Excellence and professor of clinical pharmacology
at Newcastle University, and David Webb, chairman of the Scottish Medicines
Consortium and professor of therapeutics and clinical pharmacology at
the University of Edinburgh, blamed poor prescribing by junior doctors
on changes to the training of medical students and the closure of many
university pharmacology departments.
Mr Pruce commented: “Pharmacists are increasingly making prescribing
decisions and monitoring prescribing in hospitals. However, there is
still considerable variation between hospitals which can directly impact
on the safety and quality of prescribing. The Society believes that pharmacists
should train undergraduate medical students and junior doctors as they
start to prescribe in hospital.”
Prescribing training Pharmacists
in the north of England are collaborating with medical colleagues at
the Northern Deanery Foundation School to
provide prescribing
training to doctors as they begin to prescribe in clinical practice. Core training
will be provided at Newcastle University with a local module delivered by clinical
pharmacists in each base hospital. |
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