Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee
Don't be shrinking violets, Gidley urges
Sandra Gidley: pharmacists need to be proactive in publicising services |
Every pharmacist should be an ambassador for the profession and each
needs to promote the image of pharmacy, MP and pharmacist Sandra Gidley
insisted. To do so, pharmacists need to remember some golden rules, she
added: “MPs and politicians are media tarts. Invite them to your
pharmacy, and invite local councillors. … Don’t be shrinking
violets.”
Pharmacists also need to be proactive and innovative in publicising new
services, Mrs Gidley added. “There are plenty of opportunities
to explain what you are doing to the public — pharmacy does not
exist in a vacuum,” she said.
However, she warned that there are still hurdles to be overcome, particularly
in
terms of practice-based commissioning. Pharmacists will have to “offer
the X-factor” if they are to encroach on the terrain traditionally
occupied by GPs, Mrs Gidley said.
“Go out there and try to make it happen,” she urged. If
pharmacists cannot get services commissioned through practices, they
should go to
their primary care trusts, she said, and, if that does not work, they
should involve their MPs.
But, Mrs Gidley stressed, pharmacy also needs strong political leadership.
Although the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is doing well in terms of regulation,
the new watchwords of the profession should be “representation,
representation, representation” she urged. “Political leadership
in pharmacy needs to be stronger,” she said. “Strong political
leadership can only be good for the
profession.”
Mrs Gidley also set a challenge for Andy Burnham, the health minister
with responsibility for pharmacy, who took to the podium directly after
her.
“Whenever you are thinking about how services can be delivered
better,” she
said, “I want you to ‘Think pharmacy’.” She said
that when Mr Burnham comes to the end of his tenure as pharmacy minister,
she wanted to be able to cut him open and see the words “Think
pharmacy” written, as in a stick of rock, all the way through him.
If Mr Burnham is able to keep that in mind, it will lead to the best
outcome for pharmacy and the best for patients, Mrs Gidley argued.
Commissioning woes to be heard
The Government wants to listen to the problems facing pharmacists trying
to provide enhanced services, Andy Burnham, the health minister with
responsibility for pharmacy, said.
“The role of community pharmacy has to expand and change,” he
said. That will involve, he argued, more enhanced services being developed
at a local level. “Increasing numbers of primary care trusts are
commissioning enhanced services at a local level,” he stressed.
“We also want to see primary care trusts taking up the enhanced
service frameworks,” he urged. Nonetheless he said he recognised
that there was frustration with progress in some areas, and said he would
listen
to pharmacists’ views of where the problems lay.
He also insisted he would try to learn from Scotland’s successes,
such as in developing a national patient group direction for unscheduled
care, which Harry McQuillan, chief executive of the Scottish Pharmaceutical
General Council, described earlier in the conference.
Sue Sharpe, chief executive of the PSNC, said that a national minor ailments
service, either as an advanced or an essential service, was the next “big
win” that the PSNC was aiming for in its negotiations with the
Department of Health.
Pharmacy can boost Parkinson's disease care
Community pharmacists can address Parkinson’s disease patients’ needs
by helping them understand their medicines and their condition, the results
of a Department of Health-funded project suggest.
In the study, specially trained community pharmacists were able to identify
uncontrolled symptoms and medicines-related problems and to refer patients
for treatment review by other health care professionals. Questionnaires
asking what patients knew about Parkinsons’ disease before and
after the project were completed by 145 patients.
Meera Sharma, professional services manager at UniChem, who presented
the results of the project, said that over 60 per cent of patients believed
they knew more about their condition and treatment after taking part
in the project and 70 per cent believed they had experienced greater
benefits from their medicines since taking part.
In addition, 82 per cent said that the advice of the pharmacist was helpful,
88 per cent said they would recommend the service to others and 90 per
cent said the pharmacist listened to their concerns.
More ADRs found in reviews without notes
Clinical medication reviews during which pharmacists do not have access
to patients’ summary medical notes are more likely to uncover adverse
drug reactions, the results of a randomised controlled trial suggest.
Clare Mackie, head of Medway School of Pharmacy, presented results of
the study, in which 458 patients in the Glasgow area were reviewed by
22 trained pharmacists.
The mean number of problems identified did not differ significantly between
the two groups, but untreated indications were found more often in the
group with records (25 per cent compared with 17 per cent). However,
adverse drug reactions were identified in 13 per cent of the reviews
without records, but 8.5 per cent of those with records and the availability
of a more cost-effective formulation was identified in 9.2 per cent of
reviews with records and only 5.7 of those without.
Professor Mackie suggested that the findings may be the result of pharmacists
relating to patients differently in the absence of medical notes. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal