England's chief pharmacist calls for strong leaders
Damian Prestidge
Keith Ridge: collaboration needed |
Chief pharmacists in NHS trusts need to become stronger leaders to ensure that clinical pharmacy continues to develop, Keith Ridge, chief pharmaceutical officer for England, told attendees at a conference in London last week.
Speaking at the Hospital Pharmacist medicines
management conference,
Dr Ridge used a football analogy to describe the current situation in
the NHS. “Hospital chief pharmacists are currently playing in defence,
having to balance service delivery with service development in an atmosphere
of financial constraint,” he said. “This ‘defender
mode’ is understandable at present, but they need to move back
up to midfield quickly, supporting their clinical strike force and dictating
the pattern of play.”
He added that it is not just local leadership that needs to be strengthened
to support the enhanced clinical role of pharmacy, but leadership at
a national level.
Dr Ridge called for a more collaborative approach between pharmacists
working in different sectors of the profession. “Irrespective of
where you practise, there will be a significant shift of services into
the community,” he said. Acute hospitals are going to become a
lot more specialised and hospital and community pharmacists will need
to work closer together, particularly with more community pharmacists
specialising in clinical areas.
“It seems inevitable that there could be a net export of skilled
pharmacy staff to primary care. This alone will need much closer working
between
the sectors,” he said.
Turning to mental health services, Dr Ridge said that, despite concerns
about the methodology used in the Healthcare Commission’s report
on medicines management in mental health (PJ, 20 January 2007, p65),
mental health pharmacy is ahead of the game in many ways. However, it
has been the “Cinderella service” for too long. “Within
the Department of Health we are thinking about how best to help you and
other professionals involved in medicines management in mental health
tackle this problem,” he said. |
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