Category: News

Health Minister Robin Swann has announced the publication of his Department’s Pharmacy Workforce Review.

The Review contains an analysis of the current pharmacy workforce in Northern Ireland and recommendations to inform the development of the pharmacy workforce over the next ten years.

Minister Swann said: “Pharmacists and their teams play an essential role in delivering health services to the people of Northern Ireland. This has been particularly evident in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic with pharmacy teams rising to the challenges posed by the emergency to adapt and maintain their services.

“With our aging population, our Health Service needs to care for increasing numbers of people with complex medical needs taking multiple medicines. Pharmacists with their unique set of skills and knowledge really are the medicines experts that our Health Service needs to help ensure that our people get the best possible outcomes from their medicines.

“Implementing the recommendations contained in the review will ensure that the pharmacy workforce has the necessary capability and capacity to fully support the transformation of our Health Service in the coming years.”

The recommendations contained within the Review are consistent with wider proposals for the UK-wide reform of the initial education and training of pharmacists previously announced by the UK pharmacy regulators, including the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, in July 2020.

An early priority action for the Department, in response to the Review’s recommendations, is to take immediate steps to attract, recruit and retain more pharmacists in community, hospital and general practice roles within Northern Ireland.

Minister Swann added: “While some of the recommendations in the report will take time to implement fully, I am delighted to welcome today’s launch of ‘Pharmacy Futures NI’.

“This campaign will showcase the very best of our pharmacy profession, and demonstrate to current and future pharmacists from near and far why Northern Ireland is the best place to take the next step on their journey towards a rewarding career.”

Cathy Harrison, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at the Department of Health added: “Our review has considered the full scope of pharmacy practice in HSC settings, including community pharmacy, general practice and hospitals. The recommendations contained within the report are ambitious and transformational for the pharmacy profession in Northern Ireland. Pharmacy teams are a critical part of the multi-disciplinary medicines optimisation workforce required to ensure that our people get the most from the medicines that they use every day, and are in high demand as a result.”

“Planned reforms of the initial education and training of pharmacists in the UK will see pharmacists taking on increasingly clinical roles across all sectors. Optimising the skill mix of the pharmacy workforce is an essential part of realising the full potential of these wider developments. A central theme of the Review is developing the role of pharmacy technicians within the workforce in tandem with progressing the regulation and registration of pharmacy technicians as registered professionals in their own right.”

There has been a further call for the return of any oxygen cylinders currently not being used to any community pharmacy.

As with any patient returns at this time, caution should be taken when accepting returns, and appropriate decontamination measures should be taken. Please see a copy of the poster (previously circulated in March). You may wish to display this in your pharmacy.

Any assistance you can provide would be welcomed to support the ongoing COVID-19 situation.  

The Pharmacy First Winter Ailments service will operate again in community pharmacies from 2ndNovember 2020 until 31stMarch 2021.

The following service resources are available, on the dedicated Pharmacy First webpage on this website, available here.

  • Service specification 20/21
  • Service guide for community pharmacists 20/21
  • Service Contract 20/21 – this should be signed and returned via email to your local HSCB office before you commence the service
  • Privacy notice template
  • Advice sheet for sore throat and common cold
  • Advice sheet for patients with symptoms of Coronavirus
  • Pharmacy First Monthly Record Form

CPNI have produced a 15 minute Pharmacy First training webinar, which we hope you find useful, available here. It should be used alongside the service specification and guidance to train all members of the pharmacy team involved in service delivery.

Printed copies of the service posters will be distributed to contracted pharmacies. Pharmacies may also wish to promote the Pharmacy First service on their social media accounts, using the patient information leaflet available on the BSO website. Pharmacy First communications will be shared on CPNI’s social media channels, please feel free to share.

If you have any queries in relation to the service please contact the pharmacy advisor in your local HSCB office or Kerry Grimes in the CPNI office.

By James McCaughan, Chair, Community Pharmacy NI

Looking back on part of ‘Ask Your Pharmacist Week’, pharmacies across Northern Ireland showcased the range and quality of care they provide on a daily basis to all of those within their communities. Of course, the week has also allowed time to reflect on the services provided by our community pharmacies throughout the fight against Covid-19.

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has changed the face of community pharmacy. We are one of the key primary healthcare providers on the ground, ensuring that the safe supply of medicines is assured, and our patients and communities remain healthy and looked after. This is a role which we do not take lightly.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the community pharmacy workforce has stepped up to the mark and shown extraordinary strength and resilience under mounting pressure rarely experienced before.

We got back to our core service and adapted so that we could support our communities in the safest way possible. New measures had to be introduced quickly including screens and social distancing. Our working practices changed, literally overnight, and so did much of our lives. Hours increased, services changed, but the commitment of our local pharmacists remained. As an organisation, we are incredibly thankful for this.  

Moreover, as GPs became less accessible, local community pharmacies became the first port of call for anyone managing a lifelong condition or experiencing illness. From the beginning of the pandemic we have been inundated with patients, with local pharmacies across Northern Ireland seeing on average 40,000 more people per week. At several points we were seriously understaffed with 30% of pharmacists self-isolating, meaning those still working were doing 70-hour weeks.

Community Pharmacists have proven their valuable role during this time. During a period of uncertainty and fear, they have been a steady hand of reassurance, advice, and support for many people, including some of the most vulnerable in our local communities. I am proud of the work of my colleagues who stepped up to the plate when they were called upon.

In addition this year, we have focused on the expansion of our services within public health, including the free winter flu vaccine service offered to all health and social care staff, the Minor Ailments Service and the Pharmacy First programme. All of these services are working to ease pressures across the health service, allowing our HSC colleagues in areas such as GP surgeries and Emergency Departments to focus on critical patients and work towards ensuring accessible services are provided within all our communities.

Moving into winter, we are calling on everyone to pull together and work with us so we can continue to serve and provide for our communities with the same high standard of service delivered up to this point.

Whilst this period presents us with additional challenges in terms of services, we remain as committed and driven as ever to continue to help those who need us. Covid-19 has shown that the Northern Ireland health service is strong and resilient, but it is not unbreakable. We need to all work together and meet these challenges together and united.

Dr Mark Timoney has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday honours list.

The OBE has been awarded for services to Pharmacy.  Dr Timoney held the post of Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Northern Ireland from 2013 to 2019. Throughout this period, he had responsibility for the direction and performance of pharmacy and medicines optimisation policies, the regulation and enforcement of medicines legislation as well as education and training. Dr Timoney’s leadership resulted in the pharmacy profession delivering significant improvements in quality, safety and innovative practice in support of population health gain.

He graduated from The London School of Pharmacy with a First-Class Honours degree and subsequently obtained a Master’s Degree in Clinical pharmacy and a Doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast.  Prior to joining the Department of Health, he held the post of Director of Pharmaceutical Services for the Southern Health and Social Services Board and before this he was the Chief Pharmacist at the Mater Hospital.

Dr Timoney is currently a Director of Timoney Pharmacy, Lambeg, a community pharmacy established by his parents in 1954. He has recently been appointed Chair of the South Eastern Local Commissioning Group and is a member of the Statutory Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.

Commenting on his award, Dr Timoney said: “It’s a great honour to be recognised in this way. This achievement is attributable in no small part to the support of my wife and children together with colleagues and teams within and outside Northern Ireland. I am pleased the award has recognised my contribution to the pharmacy profession. I hope that my ongoing work in pharmacy will contribute to the transformation and rebuilding of the wider health and social care services in order to improve the health and well-being of patients and local communities.”

The Department of Health NI has issued correspondence regarding the current Serious Shortage Protocol (SSP) for fluoxetine 40mg capsules.

The Department advises that fluoxetine 40mg capsules are now back in stock at local wholesalers and, therefore, the SSP that is currently in force will end on Friday 16 October 2020 and will not be renewed.

Further information on SSPs is available on the BSO website which can be accessed via this link: http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/services/3063.htm