Pharmacists are “rubbish at gathering evidence”
Pharmacists are not good at gathering evidence for the work they undertake.
So said Andy Murdock, Lloydspharmacy’s pharmacy director, at a pharmacy engagement meeting for Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review for England, held in London last week.
Speaking as a member of Lord Darzi’s advisory group for the review,
Mr Murdock declared: “From the outset, this process — not
just what pharmacy is going through but the whole Darzi review — was
to be based on evidence. That was made explicitly clear.”
He admitted that pharmacy was “rubbish at gathering evidence”,
adding that this did not make his job promoting pharmacy on the advisory
group easy.
Mr Murdock made a plea to primary care trusts, commissioners and service
providers to make sure that meaningful outcomes are captured from any
projects undertaken. “Doing so would make pharmacy’s job
easier as a profession,” he said.
Speaking from the floor, Catherine Duggan, United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy
Association chairman, asked how innovation could best be spread when
there is little existing evidence to support it.
Mr Murdock said: “If you are going to innovate there is no track
record. It is about saying ‘is the case compelling enough to take
the plunge and move forward?’.”
Ash Soni, London community pharmacist and a member of the pharmacy reference
group supporting Mr Murdock’s role in the Darzi review, said: “When
you innovate it is critical to recognise that one of the responsibilities
of that innovation is to create the evidence base to support what you
are doing. Use it as a vehicle to create evidence.”
Gul Root, principal pharmacist at the Department of Health, pointed out
that if evaluation of a project shows benefit the results need to be
published in peer-reviewed journals and that good practice should be
spread.
“Pharmacists are generally not very good at publishing
[results] in peer-reviewed journals, but if we do that we will build
up the evidence base — and unless we have innovation I’m
not sure where that evidence base will come from.”
A second event, hosted by Keith Ridge, chief pharmaceutical officer at
the DoH, was held in Manchester this week.
Issues raised in discussion groups
At the London event pharmacists put forward various
suggestions or needs in three discussion streams: Long-term conditions
• Improved understanding of where pharmacy fits into the patient
pathway
• Incentives for other healthcare professionals to work with pharmacy
• Government support for pharmacy engagement with practice-based
commissioning
Urgent care
• A fully integrated electronic prescription service
• Minimum levels of service regardless of where a pharmacy is located
• Improved flow of information between GPs, pharmacy and NHS direct
• An up-to-date database with information on what pharmacy services
are available and where they are
Staying healthy
• Establishment of a public health collaboration for pharmacy
• Improved public health learning at undergraduate and postgraduate
level
• Better investment in training for pharmacists and pharmacy staff
in the staying healthy agenda
• Local funding for long-term public health outcomes |
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