NHS Pharmacists’ Newsletter – September 2024 | The Pharmacists' Defence Association

In this issue:

Welcome to the Autumn edition of the NHS Pharmacists’ Newsletter
Why I became a PDA Rep
Get involved in the PDA Primary Care Network
The highs and lows of being on-call
My year as a trainee pharmacist in the NHS
Reduction of working hours for NHS staff in Scotland
Get involved
In case you missed it

Welcome to the Autumn edition of the NHS Pharmacists’ Newsletter

Since the last edition, there have been many developments within the PDA. We now have over 40 PDA Reps within the NHS who are having a real impact in their workplace. If you are interested in becoming a rep, more details can be found here.

The PDA’s NHS Reps’ Network met in August 2024 and discussed collective approaches to on-call, whether that is tackling the low sessional rate or demanding that compensatory rest is provided.

Since the last newsletter, we had a members’ meeting in May 2024. Here NHS members met to discuss workplace stress, consider the employers’ legal responsibilities, and how we can work together to improve workplace wellbeing.

Our next event for NHS members is on Tuesday 1 October from 7pm-8pm. During this event members will be exploring how we can work together to transform our working lives. To join the meeting please register here.

Why I became a PDA Rep

By Sade Abiola, PDA Rep and senior clinical pharmacist, NHS Fife

I currently work as a senior clinical pharmacist within NHS Fife. My role covers both mental health and community hospitals therefore, I have a strong affinity towards the elderly group within both specialities. Their medications and needs can be complex, which often requires the use of my professional judgement and juggling my expertise from my journey as a pharmacist. It is challenging but also rewarding to see how my little bit of impact makes a difference for the people I support and for the teams I sit within.

A pie and a drink led me to my journey to become a PDA Rep. I heard about the different examples of what support I can get in the role and also provide to various people at different stages of their career, both professionally and personally. I have been able to see first-hand the power of collective bargaining, giving people the voice and opportunity to make a change, and therefore, hopefully create a workforce that is robust both in terms of knowledge and mentally. In my eyes it is a win-win situation both for the pharmacists and the employers. As a PDA Rep you are bringing out the best in your workforce when you listen and address their concerns while trying to create the atmosphere for change, forward thinking, and showing you are open to make things better.

I attended a Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) conference and saw that there was a Black Workers Committee. I couldn’t believe it, allies and Black workers within Scotland banding together to make a change and speaking about inequalities. I was so excited to be co-opted into their committee and learn first-hand about different streams of work done to raise awareness within Scotland. I encourage us all to get involved because I think together, we can all work to make things better.

Get involved in the PDA Primary Care Network

Since its launch, the PDA Primary Care Network has raised a range of issues and the PDA is listening. While the nature of the issues raised is sadly not necessarily new, such as the pressure to practise outside the scope of practice and challenging behaviours when pharmacists try to assert their professional boundaries, the strength of feeling and readiness for change is. While the PDA cannot cure the challenging behaviour pharmacists in these situations encounter, we are working to support them with the skills and resources needed to prevent these too frequent incidences from escalating into patient safety concerns.

To join the PDA Primary Care Network WhatsApp group please clickhere.

The PDA Primary Care Network is also launching its quarterly network meeting in the Autumn. We are therefore asking you to make sure that your comms preferences on your PDA login in are up to date if you wish to take part and receive relevant communications. You can update this by clickinghere.

Members wishing to contact the network’s lead can email Una O’Farrell, PDA National Officer for NI, atUna.O’Farrell@pda-union.org. Una is based between London and Northern Ireland and since February 2024, has been focused on organising members working in GP practice settings throughout England.

JOIN THE PDA PRIMARY CARE NETWORK WHATSAPP GROUP

The highs and lows of being on-call

By an anonymous hospital pharmacist

Transitioning from working as a community pharmacist to a full-fledged hospital pharmacist is a challenging life experience for many of us. I worked for Boots for three years before I finally made the decision that I wanted to get more out of my practice as a pharmacist and that the way to achieve this was through working as a hospital pharmacist.

Being on-call is one of the major changes that you have to face when you newly start as a hospital pharmacist. The experience from working in community does not always translate into management of acutely unwell patients requiring rapid interventions. You learn how to make quick, on-the-spot decisions affecting patient care and take responsibility for your choices.

Starting on-call is a stressful experience from the beginning. Thankfully, in my Trust there was plenty of support when it came to making clinical decisions, learning about how to manage your workload, and deciding when it was appropriate to go in. The help, however, is usually only available during the day and from my own experience, the most problematic cases will always pop up in the middle of the night, often with nobody else to help you. Trying to get hold of specialist colleagues at 3 am is probably not the way you want to start your work at the Trust, but sometimes the right answer is a matter of life and death for your patient.

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My year as a trainee pharmacist in the NHS

By Polla Raza, newly qualified pharmacist

My year as a hospital trainee pharmacist within the NHS has been exciting and fulfilling, with each day presenting new challenges and learning opportunities. The induction period lasted two weeks and included meeting essential members of the pharmacy team, completing e-learning modules on the Electronic Staff Record, and gaining an understanding of the different clusters within the trust.

Throughout the year, we participated in teaching sessions where specialist pharmacists from different clinical areas presented on various clinical conditions, treatment options, and their experiences. These sessions were incredibly helpful in building the foundation of my future role and preparing me for the upcoming GPhC exam.

During my training year, I had four to six-week rotations through major clinical areas like elderly medicine, children’s general medicine, acute medicine, and general surgery. I also had the opportunity to observe more specialised sectors such as the DOAC (direct oral anticoagulant) clinic, cystic fibrosis, neonates, liver clinic and medicines information. In the beginning, I spent my mornings with the pharmacy technicians, learning how to conduct drug histories accurately and order time-critical medication to the wards. In the afternoons, I shadowed the ward pharmacist, seeing firsthand how they collaborated with other members of the multi-disciplinary team, handled queries and carried out medicine reconciliations. Over time, I developed my approach, incorporating lessons from the pharmacists I worked with.

LEARN MORE

Reduction of working hours for NHS staff in Scotland

Back in January of 2024, it was announced that the Scottish government intended to reduce the full-time working week in NHS Scotland from 37.5 hours to 37 hours. While this reduction is welcome, there were some issues that came from the very short period that was given for its implementation. In early March, it was confirmed this change was to be instigated by 1 April and it did not give the Scottish health boards very long to work out exactly how they were going to implement this change.

Some of our members were left concerned that the maths seemed to be a little bit off when the reduction was being applied to part time workers. Some very strange rounding systems were suggested by the employer initially, which meant that workers were not receiving the full reduction to their own hours they had anticipated from a simple pro rata calculation.

Members were invited to discuss their experiences and share their concerns with PDA Representatives at a member meeting in May. This gave us a good understanding of the unintended consequences of these changes, as well as highlighting how prevalent the inherent unfairness was for part time NHS workers. We spoke with representatives from our sister unions within the NHS and discovered that this inequality was not solely being experienced by pharmacists.

Thankfully through conversations in the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee, members should now have the correct reductions to their hours applied and arrangements should have been made to ensure that any time accrued in the period of insufficient provision should be returned as time in lieu.

Further reductions to the NHS working week are planned for the next two years down to 36 hours in 2026. It is hoped that lessons from this year’s reduction will be learned to ensure a smoother process for workers. If not, the PDA will enable you to get the situation resolved.

Get involved

Those who wish can become a PDA Workplace Rep here or they can also get involved with their Regional Committee here.

The PDA also has four Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Networks available for members to join. All networks welcome allies and PDA Student and PDA Trainee members can join for FREE. More information can be found here.

We encourage you to forward this newsletter to colleagues who you feel may find it interesting and if they are not yet members of the PDA and wish to join they can do so here.

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NHS Pharmacists’ Newsletter – September 2024

Welcome to the PDA NHS Pharmacists' Newsletter for PDA members. In the issue learn about how to join the PDA Primary Care Network and a reduction of working hours for NHS staff in Scotland. Also read about the experiences of a trainee pharmacist in the NHS and why one member became a PDA Rep.

Thu 19th September 2024 The PDA