In Views

Follow this topic

Bookmark

Record learning outcomes

Tuesday, January 7

This is the first local pharmaceutical committee meeting of 2014 and the penultimate one of the current term, which ends in March. We are in election mode and there has been good interest from independent contractors. We have 13 on our committee, with three places for Company Chemists Association (CCA) and two for Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) representatives, leaving eight independent contractor places up for election. It is still business as usual with an important contractor support programme planned for the next month and work on an outline strategic plan for the next four-year term for the new committee to consider and, hopefully, implement.

Friday, January 10

Today I'm at a meeting in St Albans of a panel of officers and past chairmen of the National Pharmacy Association to discuss implementation of strategy that will deliver the needs of independent contractors. With the NPA's focus on independents, it is important that the business and representational needs are properly addressed. The needs of independents tend to be more business-specific, with a focus on day-to-day activities. An excellent example is the resource prepared to help NPA members meet General Pharmaceutical Council standards with practical support and video clips for both pharmacy owners and their staff.

Monday, January 13

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has arranged a number of evenings to support LPCs with the Pharmacy's Call To Action initiative and my CEO and I are attending an evening event at a Heathrow hotel. Two of the questions are on ideas to improve what we already do: ensuring patients get the best from their medicines and dispensing safety. The other two concern opportunities to expand our role: creating a 'pharmacy first' culture and integrating community pharmacy into the patient pathway. We decide to make this a key item at our next month's contractor support meeting.

Wednesday, January 15

Is this a month of strategies? Do all pharmacy organisations revisit strategy just after Christmas or is this just a coincidence? The Pharmacy London (PL) meeting today is of a small subgroup tasked to shape strategy and governance arrangements for PL. Organisations such as NHS England have moved towards an agenda covering larger geographic areas in an attempt to improve consistency and make best use of resources and, therefore, do not wish to work at individual LPC level in all matters. PL, to date, has been a federation of LPCs, essentially a communications forum; however, delivering a London-wide flu campaign has shown how a larger-scale initiative could work for both contractors and commissioners. In future, LPCs will need to consider the extent to which PL might be mandated to engage with NHS England (London) and other stakeholders.

_{Health champion Geri Banahene taking a carbon monoxide reading during a stop smoking consultation}

Thursday, January 16

This is a date in the diary for an interview with Doug Simpson, who has had a long and distinguished career in pharmacy publications. Doug visits the pharmacy and gives me the rare chance to reflect on the early part of my career and to reminisce about how community pharmacy has evolved over the years. Professional roles have certainly changed for the better, as has recognition of the contribution pharmacy makes to healthcare; unfortunately, the associated financial rewards have not kept pace and this has been difficult for the profession. It was a most enjoyable afternoon.

Monday, January 20

This evening there is a training session for qualified Healthy Living Pharmacy health champions (HCs) in Lambeth and their pharmacists €“ in the past, it would have been the pharmacists and their staff! I believe up-skilling our staff comes from professional confidence in what we as pharmacists can do and what we can delegate. This also shows the good leadership needed in coordinating the modern community pharmacy team. I have seen my HC come on leaps and bounds from when she first, nervously, embarked on this journey after our pharmacy was selected as a pilot HLP.

Tuesday, January 21

I am a member of the Lambeth Borough Prescribing Committee, formerly know as Medicines Management, and today I have a meeting with the chair and an appointed lead person to implement a project on adherence. It is widely recognised that adherence is perhaps the single most important issue in getting the maximum benefit from medicines and reducing wastage and, despite numerous initiatives over the past 20 years, little impact seems to have been made on medicines optimisation. Our project looks at patient behaviours before considering better counselling and other ways to improve adherence, and was devised in conjunction with a medical behavioural psychologist at King's College, University of London. At today's meeting we finalise a validated patient survey to be conducted in three settings: our pharmacy, a GP surgery and Guy's Hospital. Subsequently, we intend to involve other stakeholders and publish the findings in due course.

Thursday, January 23

I attend a full PL meeting. It is interesting to see that NHS England (London) assistant directors and other high profile commissioners and stakeholders have become regular attendees. We learn that commissioners are very pleased with pharmacy's contribution to the flu campaign, with the number of vaccinations approaching 70,000. It is also noted that the numbers for some hard-to-reach targeted groups, such as pregnant women, showed marked improvement.

Wednesday, January 29

The NPAI board is meeting to consider how best to support members. NPAI's insurance offering and claims processing is the best in the business. Even though this view might not be entirely impartial, it represents the feedback we regularly get from our members €“ the support in times of need is second to none. The board discusses how risk is likely to be affected in the new commissioning environment, with new players such as local authorities relying on contracts with existing suppliers as a template for new contracts with healthcare providers.

Thursday, January 30

As mentioned, larger-scale meetings are growing in importance, and today there is a meeting between South-London LPCs and the South London Area Team (SLAT) in Victoria, London. The new plush headquarters belie the supposed cuts attributed to recession. Still, this is where they all are now, rather than in a number of scattered offices. Team sizes have been substantially reduced. The SLAT is still finding its feet and establishing working relationships.