Universities who offer GPhC accredited Independent Prescribing (IP) and Clinically Enhanced Pharmacist Independent Prescribing Course (CEPIP) have been working with Health Education England (HEE) to provide an initial offer for courses that will be available before March 2022 for eligible pharmacists.
The details of the above opportunity are outlined in a HEE communication which says that this new development will “benefit pharmacists who are already in a position to apply and meet the eligibility criteria, and meets the requirement to progress this training as early as possible for community pharmacists and employers who have signalled they are ready to proceed”.
Inclusion criteria for pharmacists wishing to apply include:
- Pharmacists must be working in England.
- Pharmacists working in Community Pharmacy.
- Pharmacists working to provide primary care services (e.g. working in primary care / CCG) who are not employed in an ARRS role.
- Pharmacists working in Health and Justice settings.
- Pharmacists employed in General Practice enrolled on the NHS Primary Care Pharmacy Education Programme (PCPEP) are not eligible.
Additionally, pharmacists must demonstrate:
- The support of an identified designated medical practitioner (DMP) or designated prescribing practitioner (DPP).
- An appropriate placement arranged for practice-based learning.
- Evidence they meet the HEI eligibility criteria (applicants will be subject to their chosen HEI’s enrolment processes).
- Commitment to use the skill for the delivery of NHS services as they emerge.
A qualified welcome
The PDA welcomes the opportunity for existing pharmacists to undertake funded training on IP or CEPIP courses. It is essential for qualified pharmacists who wish to extend their professional practice to have the opportunity to do so, but to also enable the future development of the profession as part of the wider NHS, such as in the provision of pharmaceutical care which was outlined in the PDA’s strategy Wider Than Medicines.
However, there are some barriers which may mean that those who wish to apply to attend this course find it difficult, especially for those working in certain roles and for locum pharmacists;
For employed pharmacists:
- The timescales provided will likely be too short for to be able to agree the necessary time commitment away from their workplace, arrange a placement for practice-based learning and also secure the required DMP or DPP, which are increasingly hard to find.
- The funding available will not support the full back-fill costs for cover that would be needed by employers to be able to release pharmacists to attend. Nor would it enable the necessary protected learning time to complete periods of supervision with a DMP/DPP.
In addition, for locum pharmacists:
- it would be difficult to engage in this programme with such short notice, as many locums will have long standing work commitments and would not want to cancel agreed shifts
- the funding does not account for their lost earnings if locums do engage in the training.
Improvements needed
The PDA has around 10,000 locum pharmacists in membership, and it is essential that there are a significant number of locums trained to be IPs to meet the future needs of employers. Lack of consideration for locums to access training is a broader issue which the PDA are constantly raising.
The PDA believe that the programme must be properly funded to address some of the barriers identified above and suggests that one possible route to overcome these would be for a bursary arrangement to be made available to support the undertaking of the qualification beyond the basic costs of the course.
HEE says that “for those pharmacists who are not in a position to apply for this offer, we would encourage you to prepare to apply for the main round of funded Independent Prescriber training that will be available from Autumn 2022. We are also working to develop the full range of other education and training provision as part of the 2021-24 Pharmacy Integration Programme and will share information and timelines with you when these other offers are confirmed”.
To enable eligible pharmacists to take up the future opportunities on offer, the PDA encourages HEE and the HEIs to engage with all stakeholders, including those representing employed and locum pharmacists, at the earliest opportunity when developing the pipeline of courses, to ensure that barriers to participation are identified early and that potential solutions can be fully explored.
It is in everyone’s interests to ensure that there are significant numbers of pharmacists progressing to become IPs, as in addition to the care and services they will be able to offer to patients, they will be the DPPs of the future, and therefore a fundamental element of delivering the experiential learning aspects of the Initial Education and Training for upcoming pharmacists.
To ensure the success of the evolution of pharmacists’ education and support the expansion of frontline pharmacy professionals in primary care, the PDA calls on NHS England and Improvement to seriously consider the wider financial implications, beyond the funding of the IP and CEPIP courses for all those involved, including individual locum and employed pharmacists and their employers in all sectors where they may work.
You can find out more about the courses on offer here
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