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The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the King’s Fund have announced a new project which aims to transform the future of pharmacy practice in England over the next 10 years.
With the backlog of care in England at its highest ever level, the new project builds on new ways of working across health and care systems to ease pressure on the NHS and improve patient outcomes.
Richard Murray, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said the project will provide the pharmacy profession with the opportunity to “provide better, more joined-up and convenient services to patients and the public.”
A consultation phase of the project will now begin
The project is still in early stages, and the RPS and King’s Fund have now begun a consultation which hopes to seek the views and opinions of pharmacy teams from all areas of practice including primary, secondary, social and community care.
In doing so, they hope the system will get “the best out of pharmacy” so that the public “receives seamless, joined up care”.
The consultation will result in a vision that sets out how the pharmacy profession can:
- Improve patient experience and health outcomes through personalised care
- Deliver best value from medicines for patients and the NHS
- Help prevent and reduce health inequalities
- Harness science, research, innovation and technology to improve treatments
- Integrate into the wider healthcare system
- Develop into the workforce of the future and contribute where deployment is needed.
The NHS Confederation have backed the project
Chair of RPS in England Thorrun Govind said: “NHS reforms, along with an unprecedented era of economic, demographic, and technological change, present both challenges and opportunities for the pharmacy profession.
“Now is the moment to seize the initiative and set out a new professional vision that builds on the extraordinary work of pharmacy teams during the pandemic and reflects the new ways of working in multidisciplinary teams across systems to improve patient care.”
The NHS Confederation have backed the project, and Dr Nicole Atkinson, medical adviser for primary care said that a “clear vision for pharmacy” will help to design services that are sustainable and achieve best value and best possible outcomes for patients, as well as opening up “exciting opportunities for workforce training and progression”.