The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7487 p107
2 February 2008

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Guild proposes community pharmacy support network

Pharmacists with a special interest, and consultant pharmacists working across primary and secondary care, should form the basis of a clinical support network for community pharmacy, the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists proposes in its response to Lord Darzi of Denham’s review of the NHS in England.

Such a network could provide high-level support and clinical supervision for community pharmacists taking on more complex roles, and aid the development of non-medical prescribing, the guild argues.

The GHP also believes that communication about patients’ admission and discharge medicines between hospital and community pharmacies needs to improve, and that this should be facilitated by pharmacists in both sectors having read/write access to electronic patient records, with patient consent.

“Some [primary and secondary care trusts] have discharge or interface pharmacists whose role is to smooth the pathway for the patient with respect to their medicines. The functions carried out by these staff need to be routine in all hospitals,” the guild says.

It also sets out a need for specialist pharmacist input on medicines issues in almost all service commissioning — including practice-based commissioning and joint commissioning with social care — to ensure patient safety and cost effectiveness.