How you can help the development of a future forward strategy for pharmacy
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The President, Hemant Patel, who chairs the Pharmacy 2020 steering
group |
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is about to embark on its Pharmacy 2020 project, which aims to identify the challenges and drivers that affect the profession's ability to fulfil its potential in health care provision, to identify good practice in pharmacy and to prepare a forward strategy to take pharmacy to the year 2020. On these two pages we look at how pharmacists can get involved in the project and influence the future
Pharmacists will be able to start influencing a strategy for the future
of the profession from 4 September, when the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
Pharmacy 2020 project is launched during the British Pharmaceutical Conference
at Manchester International Convention Centre.
Conference participants will be able to have their say at a special Pharmacy
2020 exhibition stand — Stand 33 — where they can talk to
people involved in the project and record their views at a video booth.
They will also be able to take part in an interactive discussion, which
is part of the programme for the final afternoon of the conference, 6
September.
The discussions at the conference will be just the beginning of a wide
ranging consultation with people inside and outside the profession. The
Society’s Director of Practice and Quality Improvement, David Pruce,
says: “To inform any future forward strategy a full picture needs
to be established so that pharmacy can move forward understanding the
difficulties and these can be articulated to the GB health departments.
The initial phase of the project will include consultation on what the
barriers and drivers are that currently affect the pharmacy profession’s
ability to fulfil their potential as health care providers for the public.
This will provide a solid foundation to then consult with the public
and the profession as to what their needs and expectations will be as
we move forward to 2020.”
The intention is to produce a “socially responsible” vision
of where pharmacy should be in 10 to 15 years. The three main aims of
the project are set out in Panel 1.
Panel 1: Aims of the project
The aims of Pharmacy 2020 are to:
· Identify the challenges and drivers that affect the ability
of those in the pharmacy profession to fulfil their potential
as health care providers
· Identify good practice in pharmacy
· Prepare a forward strategy to take pharmacy to the year 2020 |
Pharmacy 2020 is being managed by a steering group comprising both
Council members and senior members of the profession, including pharmacists
working
in Scotland and Wales (see Panel 2). It is chaired by the President,
Hemant Patel. The steering group is supported by a cross-directorate
project group of Society staff chaired by Mr Pruce.
Panel 2: How the Pharmacy 2020 project is being
managed
Pharmacy 2020 is being overseen by a steering group, which
will govern
its strategic direction and report to the Council at regular
intervals.
The group is chaired by Hemant Patel, President of the Society,
who has been appointed in a personal capacity. Other members
are Marcia
Saunders (a lay member of Council), David Taylor (professor of
pharmaceutical and public health policy, School of Pharmacy,
University of London),
Clive Jackson (chief executive, National Prescribing Centre, and
a former member of Council), Alison Strath (principal pharmaceutical
officer, Scottish Executive Health Department), Bob McArtney (clinical
pharmacy specialist, University Hospital of Wales), Steve Wicks
(chairman of the Society’s Industrial Pharmacists Group) and David Pruce,
the Society’s Director of Practice and Quality Improvement.
Mr Pruce also chairs a project group with representation from all
the Society’s main operational directorates. The project group
will be responsible for the tactical and managerial decisions to
ensure that the project delivers the strategic goals agreed by the
steering group. It will give regular reports to the steering group
and the Society’s Executive Group.
Although the project is a cross-directorate one, it will be managed
from within the Practice and Quality Improvement Directorate. The
Society has appointed Michele Savage as project manager. Ms Savage
previously acted as project manager for the Society’s devolution
review. |
The Society says that
the first round of consultations will take place over three to six months.
The precise format and timetable for the initial
consultations has yet to be decided, but the aim is to involve as many
members of the profession as possible. Pharmacists can submit their views
now if they wish (see Panel 3) but should be aware that, to help them
take stock of where they are now and then look to the future, the Society
is planning to issue a number of background papers identifying trends
in health care, science, workforce, etc.
Panel 3: Submission of observations
Pharmacists do not need to wait for exhibition stands,
conference sessions, roadshows or other special events to make
their views
known. The Pharmacy 2020 project manager, Michele Savage, would
welcome preliminary observations, particularly if they are
related to the five questions to be asked at the BPC
video booth.
Further information is available from Michele Savage, Project
Manager, Pharmacy 2020, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth
High Street,
London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7572 2564; e-mail michele.savage@rpsgb.org).
Comments may be submitted by post or by e-mail. |
Pharmacy 2020 will also be informed
by the outcome of other current or planned consultations. These include
the current Code
of Ethics consultation (PJ, 17 June, centre pull-out) and
the education
review consultation (PJ, 27 May, p639).
On completion of the initial Pharmacy 2020 consultations, the Society
intends to produce rapid feedback for pharmacists on what they collectively
said.
After these first consultations, the project will move on to consider
the main question of what the forward strategy for the profession in
10 to 15 years’ time should look like. The Society intends to make
this consultation extensive. It will heavily involve the profession and
will also engage other professions, patient groups and the public.
Mr Pruce said: “We are at a key stage in the implementation of
many new and exciting developments for pharmacy. If we are in the future
to push the barriers of what we do in the pharmacy profession further
it is important that we know exactly what is happening with current pharmacy
development.
“Pharmacy 2020 is not just about creating a new vision. It is about
moving forward to the future ensuring that current strategies are in
place and
working for the public and the pharmacy profession.”
Pharmacy 2020 is not, of course, the first project launched to engage
the profession in mapping and achieving its own aspirations. The first
was the Pharmacy in a New Age (PIANA) project, launched in 1995, which
took the views of the profession and distilled them into a strategic
vision designed
to meet the needs of patients and the aspirations of pharmacists. The
Society then worked to realise that vision — with considerable
success.
Earlier this year, in his address
to the Society’s annual general
meeting on 24 May (PJ, 3 June, p662), the President, Hemant
Patel, described Pharmacy 2020 as a major piece of work to identify the
future direction
of pharmacy. He said: “We want this to be as successful a project
as its predecessor, Pharmacy in a New Age. That project shaped a highly
aspirational vision for the development of the pharmacist’s role.
In just over 10 years that vision has been delivered. The secret of the
project’s success was actually very simple: it was because so many
of our members got involved and had their say. The PIANA vision was truly
representative of the profession and that is what we need for Pharmacy
2020.”
The President concluded: “I am delighted and proud that the Council
has asked me in a personal capacity to lead this work. I am looking forward
to sharing our plans with you and getting the show on the road — literally!
I urge you to get involved and help us chart the next exciting stage
of our profession’s journey.”
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal