Organisation of pharmacy support to CHS
| Home | | Hospital pharmacy |Chapter: Hospital pharmacy : Community health services
As the White Paper 2010 changes are imple-mented it is essential that the skills and competencies of CHS specialist pharmacy staff are maintained in order to support other CHS professionals and vulnerable patients who may have complex needs in relation to their medication.
Organisation of pharmacy support to CHS
England
As explained in
Chapter 1, the NHS is undergoing a significant organisa-tional change as the
text is compiled. Prior to this, CHS were recently reorganised as primary care
trust provider services, separated from commis-sioning. Some CHS providers may
develop into independent organisations as foundation trust or social
enterprises; others may vertically integrate with an acute or mental health
trust. As the White Paper 2010 changes are imple-mented it is
essential that the skills and competencies of CHS specialist pharmacy staff are
maintained in order to support other CHS professionals and vulnerable patients
who may have complex needs in relation to their medication.
The emerging models
for pharmacy services include:
·
a team of pharmacists, technicians and support staff
directly employed by the larger CHS providers with SLAs in place with an acute
or mental health trust for supply and dispensing
·
a lead pharmacist directly employed by the CHS provider with
responsibility for advising the organisation on medicines management and
coordinating and monitoring pharmacy services provided in contracts or SLAs
·
integration of the CHS provider functions into an acute or
mental health trust such that CHS pharmacy staff are employed by and are part
of the hospital pharmacy team independent provider provision.
Scotland
NHS trusts for
acute, mental health and primary care were disbanded in Scotland in 2006 when
the concept of single-system NHS boards was created. These boards are
re-empowered with the delivery of healthcare (previously devolved to trusts) as
well as responsibility for the planning and assessment of health needs. The NHS
boards also paved the way for more integrated health and social care under
joint management arrangements. Although some sup-port for CHS is provided by
primary care-based pharmacists, the majority of it is integrated into the roles
of acute and mental health pharmacy teams. The CHS work is likely to be part of
an individual’s role rather than there being a specialist post.
Wales
The reorganisation
of NHS Wales means that health boards are responsible for planning and
providing healthcare to all their population. This includes primary, secondary,
tertiary and community care. At the time of writing, individual health boards
are still determining their structure but locality working is becoming common.
Health board pharmacy teams are responsible for providing support across the
area and will need to become more involved with CHS.
Nationally, a
strategic delivery group has been charged with delivering pharmacy services,
including contractual services, and a director for medi-cines management in
Wales has been appointed.
Northern Ireland
The Health and
Social Care Board in Northern Ireland works with the Public Health Agency to
address the health needs of the population. As in Scotland, the majority of
support for CHS is integrated into the roles of acute and mental health
pharmacy teams and is likely to be part of an individual’s role rather than
there being a specialist post.
Related Topics
