Sharon Hart |
Sharon Hart
Sharon Hart qualified as a pharmacist in 1985 and focused early
in her career on medicines management.
In 1990, she became one
of the first regional prescribing advisers to be appointed and
has worked at both regional and local health authority level.
In 1998, Mrs Hart was appointed head of publications at the Drug
and Therapeutic Bulletin.
For the past year, she has been working
as a freelance management consultant, which has involved supporting
GPs to make the changes required to meet targets associated with
medicines management. |
Pharmacists have a lot to gain from the National Programme for IT,
according to Sharon Hart, a pharmacist and newly appointed national
clinical lead
for medication management at NHS Connecting for Health (PJ, 8 March 2008,
p267).
Mrs Hart was attracted to the role as one of 19 national clinical leads
because of her belief in the potential for a national IT programme and
her frustration that it has been such a long time coming.
“Unlike many healthcare professionals, community pharmacists have
not had access to patient-specific information partly because of a perception
that somehow they practise outside the NHS,” she says.
She is confident
the flow of information between healthcare professionals made possible
by the NPfIT will benefit patients by allowing community pharmacists
to perform the wider clinical role that their training encourages and
that is envisaged by the Government.
Involving colleagues
The role of the NCLs is to involve colleagues directly in developing
the benefits that the NPfIT offers to clinical practice. In her case,
this extends to exploring the ways in which the systems and services
being delivered by NHS CfH can support and improve medicines management.
Mrs Hart is only a few weeks into her new role but already she has
been out fact-finding, meeting local pharmaceutical committee representatives
to see what is happening at their level and to find out about early experiences
with the electronic prescription service.
“I want to know what
people’s concerns are so that I can get a picture of where the
challenges are. If the same concerns about the same systems recur then
there may be something we can do to expedite them at a national level,” she
says.
But it is not the EPS that excites Mrs Hart the most. “Obviously
I can see the benefits of EPS but this is just a step along the way to
accessing the summary care record, which is what I see as most exciting.
The developments that will come next will really allow pharmacists’ input
into medicines management. And the information flow will go two ways.
Pharmacists will also be able to communicate with other healthcare professionals
and patients about medication including the purchase of over-the-counter
medicines,” she explains.
However, access to the summary care record for community pharmacists
has some way to go yet, with the recent
White Paper (PJ, 12
April 2008, p430) indicating that further work will be carried out with
early adopter sites
to consider the benefits, governance and practical arrangements of community
pharmacists having access to the summary care record.
But Mrs Hart is keen for access to happen. “There is a lot of commitment
and support for the development of the summary care record,” she
says. “Even in groups where there is sensitivity about confidentiality,
there is recognition of the need for access to records for the benefit
of patients.
Mrs Hart has had a varied career (see Panel). In
terms of her NCL role, she believes that her strengths lie in communication,
influencing and
engagement to develop strategy and change practice. She also has a wide
network of contacts in both pharmacy and medicine. She hastens to add
that she is not an IT specialist.
“Encouraging people to communicate
more effectively and change practice where necessary are my key skills,” she
says.
Mrs Hart is the only pharmacist among the NCLs within NHS CfH. “I
see it as a really important role, both from the point of view of making
sure medicines management issues are represented and ensuring that the
right people are involved in influencing and testing at the right stages,” she
says.
Her role straddles a variety of work streams across NHS CfH, including
the EPS, the e-prescribing programme (in secondary care), the common
user interface and the national care records service. In primary care,
Mrs Hart believes that a key challenge she faces is getting pharmacists
to work together to influence their IT suppliers and make change happen.
“That appears to be the biggest difference between the pace of change
between GP and community pharmacy systems,” she explains. “GPs
have had to work together on IT issues. They have influenced suppliers
to develop and change systems. Community pharmacists have not had to
work together in this way but they need to now.”
Mrs Hart says that it is important for pharmacists to understand that
they are represented within NHS CfH and that the programmes can deliver
real benefits. However, she stresses that it is imperative that pharmacists
demonstrate to suppliers that they want to access services such as the
EPS and the summary care record.
“The most immediate challenge
is optimising systems for delivery of the EPS and developing the software
needed for release 2 of the service.” She adds that NHS CfH can
help, but the onus is on pharmacists to act so that they can be at the
forefront of developing the right systems to support their needs.
Pharmacists may also have to think about whether their working practices
need to change to make full use of the new services. “As will happen
with all professions, pharmacists may need to evolve different ways of
working,” says Mrs Hart. Action point
If community pharmacists are going to do one thing related to IT within
the next month, Mrs Hart recommends that they should find out which
pharmacists in their area have the same system and discuss problems
and improvements that need to be made. Then, they need to work with
the system supplier to address these issues.
This will start the ball rolling in terms of working with suppliers
in a co-ordinated way, says Mrs Hart. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal