RPS in Wales to focus on palliative and end-of-life care and NHS 111

Palliative and end-of-life care will be a major focus for the Royal Pharmaceutical (RPS) Society in Wales during the next year, Suzanne Scott-Thomas, chair of the Welsh Pharmacy Board has said.

Speaking to The Pharmaceutical Journal at the RPS Conference 2017, Scott-Thomas said the RPS would like more people to work with the Society to share good practice and contribute to policy work in the area.

“It’s a call for help on this ongoing work: we’ve yet to publish anything, but I hope it will be as influential as our care home policy,” she said.

Other future plans, Scott-Thomas said, involved looking at how the Society could support training and development of pharmacists working in NHS 111.

She said: “This started as a pilot, and it’s been a great success. Pharmacists personally managed 70% of the patients that were triaged to them, which is a very positive result and the model is now being rolled out to health boards.

“We need more pharmacists in NHS 111, and we’re working with the NHS on how we can train and develop pharmacists to make them competent as quickly as possible to provide the service.”

The near future will also see the Choose Pharmacy minor ailments scheme being rolled out to every community pharmacy in Wales.

“Every Welsh health board has committed to commission the common ailment scheme on the back of that”, Scott-Thomas said.

“We will be working with the Welsh government on public messaging, trying to change patient pathways so that people see community pharmacy as the first port of call for minor ailments. Over the next year we’ll be working hand in glove with the government and health boards on this.

“As part of that planning, there is the matter of access to the patient record — we hope we will have some very positive news on that in the near future”.

Finally, RPS Wales is looking ahead to this year’s Medicines Safety Conference, which takes place in Hensol, near Cardiff, on 29 November.

“Last year was our best ever, with more than two hundred people attending. There was a huge buzz about the day, and we were really proud of the event,” said Scott-Thomas.

“This year, we hope to do more and we think that it will be even better.”