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Medicines Management
Issue no 5, p14
September/October 2002

Features

Prescribing — from policy into practice

Pharmacist prescribing will be a reality next year. Clive Jackson, chairman of the Faculty of Prescribing and Medicines Management board, looks at what has already been done and what still needs to be done

Expectation is that the first pharmacists will be formally qualified to be active supplementary prescribers by the middle of 2003 in England. Key development and implementation work has yet to occur to allow this expectation to become reality, although much is already under way. There are many different elements required to deliver supplementary prescribing by pharmacists. The main ones include the following:

1. First, a core competency framework for pharmacists undertaking supplementary prescribing responsibilities is now in its final development phase and, subject to the results of the formal consultation exercise, should be ready for publication by the National Prescribing Centre early in 2003.

2. Secondly, the drafting of a core curriculum by a team being led by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, is well advanced and it is hoped that this work will be completed and gain Society approval in the next few months.

3. Thirdly, much preparatory work has now been undertaken to inform the development of central guidance to health service organisations around the effective local delivery of supplementary prescribing.

4. Finally, considerably more work is still required, but progress here is now also evident in three other areas. The development, by relevant educational establishments, of accredited initial training programmes, including supervised practice sessions; a professional code of practice and regulatory framework; and a continuing professional development structure applicable to the maintenance of effective prescribing practice

One of the issues currently being considered by the Faculty of Prescribing and Medicines Management (FPMM) is how pharmacists delivering health care can be best supported around the development of supplementary prescribing. A number of areas of potential need have already been identified which include:

• Improving pharmacists' understanding about the philosophy, context and overall regulatory and management framework of supplementary prescribing

• Raising pharmacists' awareness of the educational, developmental and competency requirements needed to achieve and maintain supplementary prescriber status

• Identifying potential barriers to the practical implementation of supplementary prescribing in each of the main environments where pharmacy is practised

• Generating and disseminating practical solutions to these potential barriers in a proactive and timely way

Initially, it is the latter two areas that the FPMM board has agreed to address. It will lead a piece of work to identify the potential barriers to supplementary prescribing, while also generating some practical solutions. It is envisaged that this work will be done in three separate parts covering each of the main areas of pharmacy practice (community, hospital and primary care) but eventually coming together to provide a comprehensive guide for both FPMM members and others. Discussions are well advanced in relation to a joint project, with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the National Pharmaceutical Association, to develop a support package for community pharmacists. It is expected that this project will start in the near future. Appropriate partners are currently also being approached to support similar work for both hospital and primary care pharmacists.

The FPMM board will continue to take soundings from members to identify other support needs in this area and, as one step in this process, is holding a one-day conference, on 21 November 2002 (Nottingham), with the theme of pharmacist prescribing. Although it is clear that prescribing by pharmacists is soon to become reality — is the profession, as yet, sufficiently aware of one of the most important developments in pharmacy since the introduction of the NHS?