Page 16 - P4403.59-V64_Numark Pharmacy Magazine June 25

With the limitations of traditional pharmacy of places. We see patients that don't access
training, which often focuses on narrow healthcare. They come into our shop for a
areas like blood pressure management, it is variety of things. We have conversations
obvious that pharmacists should be trained with them. We know them. We know the
to handle a broader range of prescriptions communities we work in. We know the health
and patient care. The role of pharmacists as needs of what's going on in the local area.
the front line between patients and the NHS, We get the health agenda on a real local
urges the need for them to be multi-skilled. level. So why aren't we best placed to help
manage that?
“I just felt that pharmacists were being left
out of conversations, and our skill set was We're not getting paid to dispense anymore
just being relegated to only doing structured and that money just isn't there for us to
medication reviews, which I think we're very provide that service anymore, and we
good at. I'm not trying to downgrade the are having to find other ways to income
medication review system, but we can do generate. But fundamentally, a lot of us
so much more. If you have a patient who come into pharmacy to help patients,
tells you they have got really bad ankles and and being a prescriber and being able to
the medication they are on isn’t helping, if implement just simplistic changes to helping
we could just switch it, that'd be great. But patient’s improve the health. Even just some
we can't do that. I've got to now send the of the promotion topics that you can have
patient to a GP, and I've got to write a letter on the counter, to raise awareness and to
to them, and the GP is going to be really try and prevent someone from needing
busy, and might not have time to see the surgery become diabetic, and all those
patient... And you just think, what a wasted things which we would like the luxury to be
intervention that is, I'm basically sending able to do but we can't, because we've got
them to someone else who doesn't have to dispense loads because we're not getting
time to potentially deal with this.” enough money, so we have to spend more
medication to try and pay the bills and pay
The creation of the Ashburton Academy our staff. So trying to find ways that we can
is to address the gaps in pharmacist use the skills that we've trained for, I think is,
training and development and aims to is sensible?”
build confidence in pharmacists, helping
them feel comfortable in signing their first Ashburton Academy homes in on the
prescription and delivering services. importance of having
pharmacist-led training that focuses on
“There just seems to be a real gap. And in pharmacists’ unique perspective and skills.
terms of community pharmacists, we work With HRT being the first topic launched
in shops all around the place. We see loads for Numark members, the potential areas
of interest for future training on how
to offer private-based services
not covered by the NHS, include
women's health, men’s health and
weight management.

For more information on Ashburton
Academy visit
www.ashburtonprescribing.com/
academy.

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