The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7476 p487
3 November 2007

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BMA supports APPG on pharmacy services

Expanded pharmacy roles in sexual health services, minor ailments, diabetes screening and weight management have been given broad support by the British Medical Association.

Responding to the All-Party Pharmacy Group report on the future of pharmacy at an APPG meeting this week, Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s general practitioners committee, said he supported all but one of the report’s recommendations for new national advanced services.

Dr Buckman welcomed the APPG’s proposals for new national advanced services in sexual health, minor ailments, diabetes screening and weight management. However, he raised concerns about pharmacist involvement in the management of long-term conditions.

He said he had doubts about whether IT connectivity would enable such management to happened as it needed to and he also questioned where ultimate responsibility for a patient would lie when two different health professionals were involved with the management of a patient’s condition.

Dr Buckman stressed that more needed to be done to encourage collaborative working between GPs and pharmacists.

Where professional boundaries are blurred there is the potential for disagreement, especially if money is involved, he acknowledged. But, he said, rather than trying to divide and rule, GPs and pharmacists should be looking at uniting and fighting to improve health for patients.

He also argued that GPs and pharmacists do not do enough professional development together and, at an undergraduate level, elements of medical and pharmacy courses which overlap should be taught together.

In addition, he said that he did not understand why all local pharmaceutical committees and local medical committees did not have members sitting on one another’s committees.

He welcomed a suggestion from Sue Sharpe, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, that the PSNC and the General Practitioners Committee should arrange a joint meeting of representatives from all LMCs and LPCs.