Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 9 No 7 p209
July/August 2002

APTUK 2002: Technicians look ahead

Alison Ewing, director of pharmacy, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, believes that the next three years will be an exciting time for pharmacy technicians. Miss Ewing, who is on the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, noted that the Council had recently voted to support technician registration. She emphasised that a sound framework for registration, which would include training requirements and individual accountability, is urgently required.

On the role of APTUK, Miss Ewing said that the Society viewed the association as a major stakeholder in the consultation process. However, in the future, the association would have to revise one of its key objectives, since it would be involved in maintaining, rather than seeking, registration. Miss Ewing declared that, with APTUK, pharmacy technicians had the opportunity to control their future.

Registration

As APTUK members, pharmacy technicians were already registered, was the message from Lesley Morgan MBE, president, APTUK. Mrs Morgan explained that the association has maintained a voluntary register for many years and has striven to promote the regulation of pharmacy support staff. She said that even now, pharmacy technicians on the voluntary APTUK register abide by a code of practice and several bye-laws. The voluntary register is sent out annually to interested parties, including the Department of Health.

Mrs Morgan noted that the drivers for change as regards technician regulation include the Kennedy report ("The report of the public inquiry into children's heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary 1984–1995: learning from Bristol") and the Department of Health's response to the report, the NHS and pharmacy plans, and the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Bill.

APTUK will be working closely with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on technician regulation in the coming months, and Mrs Morgan would like to see pharmacy technicians coming together and presenting one voice on the issue. She has been encouraged by the 60 per cent increase in the number of technicians on the APTUK register over the past year, as well as the creation of new local branches of the association.

Qualifications

What is a suitable qualification for pharmacy technicians? asked Helen Dalrymple, education officer, APTUK. The increase in the number of qualifications for pharmacy technicians over the years has created a lot of confusion. She said that, in the future, registration would help to standardise qualifications, but until then, employers have to understand the wide variety of qualifications held by pharmacy technicians and be aware that not all qualifications are suitable.

Mrs Dalrymple said that, currently, the Scottish or National Vocational Qualification (S/NVQ) is the most suitable qualification for technicians. The qualification structure that will be undertaken by new S/NVQ candidates will have four mandatory units and a choice of four optional units out of a total of eight units. The S/NVQ covers both the knowledge base and the practical skills required by technicians. Mrs Dalrymple stressed the need for qualified technicians to keep up to date and develop by identifying training opportunities and participating in continuing professional development.

Management training

Tony Conway and Mike Harding, senior lecturers at the School of Management, University of Salford, Manchester, discussed management courses that have been designed for pharmacy technicians.

Mr Conway explained that, in 1998, a diploma in management was introduced at the university for technicians of grade MTO3 and above. The course was a success, and the high demand from all grades of technicians led to an access course, in the form of a certificate in management, being developed for MTO2 grades. Subsequently, a postgraduate diploma in management practice, with an option to convert to a masters programme, was developed. These courses are now open to all categories of staff, including those who are not working in the health service.

Mr Harding discussed the benefits of the management courses to pharmacy technicians. These include gaining skills in internal marketing, as well as financial and human resources management. The technicians are then able to use these skills in the pharmacy environment and also act as mentors for other technicians. He also stressed the importance of support from employers when undertaking such courses, and noted that "getting your chief pharmacist in favour of further education for technicians is only half the battle." Other forms of support from employers could include payment of fees, provision of study time and access to financial or confidential information in the workplace.

Collaborative

Gill Harvey, development manager, National Prescribing Centre, Liverpool, spoke on the National Medicines Management Collaborative.

Ms Harvey explained that a collaborative is a proven improvement method which relies on spread and adaptation of existing knowledge to many different settings in order to accomplish a common aim. She stressed that a collaborative is not a research/audit project, or a set of conferences. Ms Harvey said that all improvement requires change and change involves people, including patients, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, pharmacy technicians and any other person who has an input into patient care. The medicines management collaborative is a system for designing, implementing and delivering cost-effective pharmaceutical care to patients based on need across the NHS. This includes all aspects of the therapeutic use of medicines, from organisational level to individual patient.

Robotic dispensing

Keith Farrar, chief pharmacist, Wirral Hospital NHS trust outlined some benefits and drawbacks of automation with reference to the robotic dispensing device installed at the hospital in January 2001.

The pharmacy department dispenses over 1,200 items per day. Before automation, this volume of work required 450 hours per week of technician-time. After the installation of the robot, this was reduced to 340 hours per week. In general, staff time was freed up to carry out more patient-focused activities such as promoting the use of patients' own drugs, drug history taking and medicines information. A reduction in dispensing errors was also observed.

The problems encountered with introducing robotic dispensing, according to Mr Farrar, had to do with culture change and attitudes of pharmacy staff toward new technology.