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PDA invites all pharmacists to take part in the 2021 Safer Pharmacies Survey

The PDA has today launched their sixth annual patient safety survey, which invites pharmacists to share their experience of safety in the workplace. This survey is open to employed and locum pharmacists wherever they work.

Fri 22nd October 2021 The PDA

The PDA is urging all pharmacists to take part in the 2021 Safer Pharmacies Survey. The findings will help the PDA to understand the current working environment for pharmacists and could really help to change things for the better.

Previous PDA Safer Pharmacies Survey results have featured in pharmacy media, national newspapers and on television, which helps to influence and draw attention to the issues pharmacists face which affect patient safety. When pharmacists tell the PDA how things are, the PDA do the same when they meet with the pharmacy regulators, the government and employers.

Pharmacists can complete the short survey below – it’s based on the PDA Safer Pharmacies Charter.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY HERE

Safer Pharmacies Survey video

Previous Safer Pharmacies Survey results

The results of last year’s Safer Pharmacies Survey shone a light on the working conditions faced by pharmacists during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Respondents described increased levels of aggression faced by pharmacy teams and a lack of adequate rest leading to an increasingly stressful workplace.

The results of the previous surveys can be found below.

The results from this year’s survey will show whether employers are taking steps to safeguard their teams from harm at a time when pharmacists have increasingly demonstrated their value within the community. Pharmacies are one of the very few facilities which have remained consistently open throughout the pandemic.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY HERE

About the Safer Pharmacies Survey

The Safer Pharmacies Charter invites employers to make seven commitments to improve safety and care for patients. The commitments cover the basic areas that should be standard practice whenever and wherever pharmacy work is being carried out.

In the Safer Pharmacies Survey, we ask how often the seven commitments have been met during the past six months. With the findings, the PDA aims to persuade the government, regulators and employers to improve the working environment for pharmacists, which will, in turn, improve patient safety. The commitments are as follows:

  1. No Self-Checking – to prevent any errors, an additional, suitably trained and confident member of staff should be available at all times to provide an independent second check
  2. Safe Staffing – staffing levels need to be sufficient in order to allow all legal, contractual and regulatory obligations and organisational expectations to be met
  3. Access to a Pharmacist – a pharmacist must be available wherever patients expect immediate access to face-to-face expert advice on any medicine-related matters
  4. Adequate Rest – pharmacists must be able to take at least their statutory and contractual breaks and rest periods without interruption
  5. Respect for Professional Judgment – pharmacists should be enabled to make professional decisions in the workplace so that patient safety and professional standards come first
  6. Raising Concerns – pharmacists should be able to raise concerns without reprisal or fear, and those must be properly addressed
  7. Physical Safety – risks should be assessed, and preventative measures put in place so that patients and staff are kept safe.

Many organisations have added their support to the charter because they too want to see safer pharmacies. The Labour Party has endorsed the charter, as has trade union USDAW, the BPSA, patient safety charity Action against Medical Accidents, the Pharmacist Cooperative and Health Campaigns Together. Most importantly, thousands of pharmacists have expressed their support for it, which shows that it’s important to the profession.

For more information about the Safer Pharmacies Charter, click here.

Related link

Not yet a PDA member?

If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and ask your colleagues to do the same.

Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, trainee pharmacists and for the first three months of being provisionally registered/newly qualified.

JOIN THE PDA TODAY

Read about our key member benefits here.

 

 

 

 

 

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