Courtesy, Alima Batchelor
Pharmacists are being invited to share their experiences of safety in the workplace as part of a campaign to reduce risk in the pharmacy and improve patient care.
The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) has launched a
survey on its website to quiz the profession about safety issues at work. The results will provide data to support its Safer Pharmacies Charter.
The charter, launched in December 2017, seeks backing for seven commitments that the PDA claims are fundamental to improving patient and pharmacy safety. The commitments include a guarantee of safe staffing levels, the end of self-checking — especially in the dispensing of medicines — and adequate staff rest periods written into the working day.
“We have already had thousands of responses from pharmacists but would like more before analysing and promoting the results,” said Alima Batchelor, the PDA’s head of policy.
“As a profession, we need to do all we can to keep pharmacies safe,” she added.
Signatories to the charter so far include Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers and the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association.
