Anna Moffat Photography
Laura Wilson, director for Scotland at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, has been awarded a prize for ‘Best Oral Presentation’ at the 2024 International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Congress.
At the annual event — which was held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 1–4 September 2024 — Wilson was presented with the award for a presentation entitled ‘Independent review of clinical pharmacy services in hospitals in Wales’.
In her presentation, Wilson spoke about the RPS’s independent review of clinical hospital pharmacy services in Wales, which was commissioned by the Welsh government and published in September 2023.
The Welsh government subsequently accepted the review’s recommendations in full.
“I’m delighted that RPS’s work has been recognised in this positive and very public way by pharmacists across the international community,” Wilson said.
“Our RPS team in Wales has undertaken a power of work to develop, write and promote their transforming clinical hospital pharmacy work, and it was a pleasure to be able to present this at this year’s FIP conference.
“I hope that the presentation has focused minds and encourages pharmacists from across the world to consider how hospital clinical pharmacy services can be transformed to enhance patient care.”
Claire Anderson, president of the RPS, delivered a presentation to the FIP Congress about pharmacist prescribing in the UK. Anderson spoke as part of a session on ‘Elevating pharmacy practice: building foundations for quality prescribing‘, co-chaired by RPS Fellow and former English Pharmacy Board member Tracey Thornley, who is now a professor of health policy at the University of Nottingham.
Anderson’s talk covered the fact that all newly qualified pharmacists would be independent prescribers at the point of registration from 2026, as well as the common ailment schemes across the UK, including changes in education and the use of the RPS ‘Prescribing competency framework‘.
“There is a great global interest in prescribing and Pharmacy First-like services”, she said.
“The talks were well received and followed by a lively panel discussion with many questions from the audience about the changes to prescribing coming in for newly qualified pharmacists from 2026, and about Pharmacy First and how different countries should approach similar initiatives.”
Earlier in 2024, The Pharmaceutical Journal launched a collection of prescribing resources, developed to support pharmacists on their journey towards becoming independent prescribers.
