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PROFESSIONAL Michelle McDonagh
Report of PSI
Public Council
Meeting of Thursday,
7 July 2016
The PSI Council has unanimously approved
a major report setting out a roadmap for
how Irish pharmacy practice can develop
to meet patient needs in the future.
The Future Pharmacy Practice
– Meeting Patients’ Needs
report was commissioned by
Council in 2015 to explore how
pharmacists and pharmacy
can best contribute to the
care of patients in an evolving
healthcare system.
Dr Norman Morrow, Chair
of the Project Steering
Committee, presented on
the final report to the public
meeting of the Council via
videolink on 7 July. He said
the recommendations of the
report were ‘challenging,
realistic and achievable’ and
he categorised them under
five broad headings:
1. Health system reform
2. Pharmacy supporting
health and wellbeing
3. Supporting and
improving the health of
patients with chronic
disease
4. Managing medicines
across the patient
pathway
5. Enabling future
pharmacy practice
Dr Morrow said the report
recognised the supportive
role and unique expertise of
the pharmacy profession in
being “part of a solution to
the formidable healthcare
challenges facing the country”.
He said the recommendations
presented an opportunity for
the profession to contribute
to preventative strategies and
self-care through health and
wellbeing initiatives, drawing
on experience in Ireland and
other jurisdictions.
The report’s
recommendations also
supported better integration of
pharmacy with the rest of the
healthcare team to support
patient self-management
of their condition/s and
recognised pharmacy’s unique
body of expertise in respect
of medicines, and how this
expertise could be applied
more effectively across the
patient pathway to benefit
patient healthcare outcomes.
More integrated
approach to patient
care management
Dr Morrow said that the
report of the steering group
offered a direction of travel
for the profession, sensitive
to Government strategy and
reform, that would provide
for the full expression
of pharmaceutical skills,
multidisciplinary team
working and a more integrated
approach to managing the
care of patients and the public
in Ireland.
He advised Council that
they would need to consider
over the coming weeks
how best to put the report’s
recommendations into
operation. He pointed to the
example of Northern Ireland
where the Government had
invested £2.5m in 2016, rising
to £14m in 2020, to actively
appoint pharmacists into GP
practices to support medicine
management.
“I am not saying this is the
model that should be adopted
in Ireland, but it’s an example
of collaborative models that
are in place. It’s up to you
to find a way of developing
the model that most benefits
patients,” he said.
Caroline McGrath,
Chair of the Pharmacy
Practice Development
(PPD) Committee, said the
Committee welcomed this
excellent report, which set
out a clear direction for how
pharmacy could best meet
future patient needs. However,
she warned that there was
a risk it would just remain
a report unless an active
implementation plan was put
in place to bring it to life.
Richard Collis pointed out
that numerous phone calls
were already being made
on a daily basis between
pharmacists and GPs to clarify
prescriptions as polypharmacy
was now the norm as opposed
to the exception. He said
the report outlined a more
structured way of doing this.
“This is an excellent report,
but reports tend to sit on
shelves and we need a stepby-step
approach to bring
these proposals to life in the
healthcare environment. That’s
the real challenge,” he warned.
Newly re-elected President
Dr Ann Frankish suggested
that the next step should be to
set up a small working group
to develop a plan for moving
forward in implementing
the recommendations of
this report. Dr Frankish was
re-elected for a second term
as President at the meeting,
while Donegal community
pharmacist Rory O’Donnell
was elected as the new
Vice-President.
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IPUREVIEW AUGUST 2016