The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7462 p109
28 July 2007

Society summary

National pharmacy boards reports

English board to address All-Party concerns about pharmacy barriers

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s English Pharmacy Board meeting will address concerns raised by the All-Party Pharmacy Group in its report “The future of pharmacy”.

At its meeting on 18 July the board identified other significant areas for the coming months, including local lobbying of members of Parliament and enhanced services accreditation across England.

The board says that foremost on its agenda will be to address the barriers restricting pharmacy as outlined in the recent APPG report (PJ, 30 June, p757 and p763). That report had raised concerns already identified by the board, which has pledged to take action to:

• Increase the level of collaboration between health care professions

• Improve engagement between primary care trusts and community pharmacy

• Promote stronger working relationships and collaboration between different pharmacy bodies

• Strengthen local leadership

• Push for integrated IT systems

Immediate actions on this project include holding meetings with the Department of Health and organisations that represent GPs to promote collaborative working across professions, and promoting the Society’s “Leading across boundaries” initiative to develop the leadership potential of pharmacists across the public and private sectors (PJ, 23/30 December 2006, p771).

Paul Bennett, chairman of the board, said: “The recent publication of the APPG report has spurred us to action over a number of areas to which we will dedicate our attention over the coming months. Collaboration and leadership are two areas that the board has always seen as priority and will work toward achieving. The board is extremely positive about the projects that we have committed to take forward.”

Lobbying The board agreed that local lobbying of MPs throughout the summer recess would be a key priority. A co-ordinated approach would create a groundswell of local lobbying in order to address some of the issues facing pharmacy today. Board members will also target local authorities and councillors and will address issues of collaboration and engagement as raised in the APPG report.

Services accreditation Enhanced services accreditation across England was identified as another key objective. Pharmacists accredited to provide an enhanced service in one primary care trust may not have this accreditation recognised in a neighbouring PCT.

This is being addressed in the North West and the board would like to see this approach rolled out across England. Gail Thomas, board member and chairman of the Harmonisation Accreditation Group in the north west, is to produce a full report on the issue to help the board promote the matter.