Support for clinical governance
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There should be pharmacy input to the clinical governance structure and to the committees and groups responsible for managing any aspect of care involving use of medicines across the organisation, such as the drugs and therapeutics committee and the patient safety group.
Support for clinical governance
There should be
pharmacy input to the clinical governance structure and to the committees and
groups responsible for managing any aspect of care involving use of medicines
across the organisation, such as the drugs and therapeutics committee and the
patient safety group. There also needs to be pharmacy input to the clinical
audit programme. Each CHS organisation needs to have an overarching medicines
policy that links to other relevant policies and procedures on specific topics.
There must be policies and pro-cedures in place to support all aspects of the
safe, appropriate use of medi-cines, as detailed below. These policies and
procedures must be accessible, perhaps via an intranet, and any associated
training needs must be identified and met. Knowledge of the working practices
of community health staff is essential in formulating policies for safe use of
medicines. It must not be assumed that the medicines policy from an acute
setting would fit CHS as there are distinct differences in practice that need
to be taken into account, as referred to previously. CHS pharmacists are often
required to utilise their knowledge and expertise on legal issues relating to
medicines and to apply this to address the complex circumstances that
community-based health staff may encounter.
Pharmacy input is
also needed for any aspect of new and established services that involve the
prescription, supply and/or administration of medi-cines such as the need to
develop PGDs.
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