In normal circumstances this would have been my last monthly report as I should have completed my two years in office as GHP President and be handing over to the previous Vice President to take up the reins. However until now the post of Vice-President had remained vacant so hence I am honoured to continue in the role for a further term. I will therefore in the New Year make a resolution to continue these reports, to make them as informative as possible and to try to expedite them more efficiently.
Following on from my November report Unite and the other Health Unions have entered into negotiations with the Government, but worryingly the only news this month are concerns on the lack of progress in key areas of the final Heads of Agreement document. Unite are refusing to sign up to this agreement until they have consulted with the lay leadership in the New Year. Regional members will be seeking information on the levels of support provided by pharmacists for the day of action in November.
The other news I finished my last report was with a press statement from the RPS that they had been working with the liberal democrat peer Lord Clement Jones to amend the Health and Social Care Bill to address the criminalisation of dispensing errors. If you view the House of Lords debate on the amendment this caused us some concerns in that it only applied to three of the four UK countries and as drafted could exclude dispensing undertaken by hospital pharmacists for patients within their hospital. The amendment also had the term due diligence, which does not decriminalise the existing strict liability section 64, but only allows the defendant a potential chance to prove they are innocent!! We welcome the Minister’s statement that the Governments will continue to work with all relevant parties to find a solution and the reiteration of their commitment to bring forward a suitable legislative change at the earliest possible opportunity. We are as previously stated willing to work with other pharmacy representative bodies to address this issue in what hopefully will be the new and last year this problem remains.
December provided me with the opportunity to represent the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists at the ASHP mid-year conference in New Orleans. As well as attending one of the most interesting and informative conferences with over 20,000 hospital pharmacists in one meeting I attended an update meeting with many other Chairs and President’s of most of the main hospital pharmacy representative bodies. It is interesting how most of the issues on the agenda for that meeting are common for example medicines shortages, increasing the clinical content of the training and releasing the pharmacist from the dispensary. The ASHP have begun the journey through a major pharmacy practice model initiative (PPMi). The goal of this initiative is to significantly advance the health and well being of patients by developing and disseminating a futuristic practice model that supports the most effective use of pharmacists as direct patient care providers
On this occasion as I stated in my December 2010 report I was accompanied by two other pharmacists one senior and one junior from Sunderland as we as a Trust along with some other Trust’s in the UK have regularly sent delegates to this conference. Like the GHP conference – although our joint conference starting 18th May with UKCPA is on a significantly smaller scale – there is a full and varied educational, clinical and social programme that provides something for everyone.
Please note the ongoing work on consultations continued as well for National, European and Regulatory bodies and the responses can be viewed here
Finally do not forget you have an opportunity to become a member of Guild Council or the National Professional Committee as it is officially known within Unite by standing for election as Regional Member further details here
May I wish you a happy and successful 2012 and hopefully the topics and problems we have discussed this year will have all be addressed and resolved