Though it pulls no punches and makes tough reading, the Darzi Review is a very welcome piece of work and finally, with a new government, there is now a real opportunity after years of neglect to start to repair the NHS.
Many PDA members work in hospitals, community pharmacies, and in GP surgeries and some work in all of the above as part of their portfolio careers.
Lord Darzi has stated that “My colleagues in the NHS are working harder than ever but our productivity has fallen.”
Mark Koziol, PDA Chairman said, “This is exactly what our members, through focus groups and other forms of feedback have been telling us for years. Consequently, the PDA has consistently argued that the broken system has resulted in everyone working hard but not working smart. This is what the PDA submitted to Lord Darzi while he was preparing his report.”
In seeking to resolve these issues, the PDA has produced a range of strategy and policy papers over the years which have argued for the re-engineering of the system to foster greater integration and collaboration of all healthcare professionals for the benefit of the patient, the NHS, and the taxpayer.
The PDA’s recommendations map out how it would be possible to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and avoidable A&E attendances. This chimes powerfully with Lord Darzi’s findings when he states that, “We need to rebalance the system towards care in the community rather than adding more and more staff to hospitals.”
Mark concluded, “The PDA is now undertaking a detailed analysis of this 159-page report and members can rest assured that we will engage fully with the process of reform on their behalf and that we will represent the unique skills and contributions that pharmacists as the experts in medicines can make to the reconfiguration.”
Learn more
- PDA responds to the urgent investigation of the NHS by Lord Darzi
- PDA highlights several emerging but highly significant matters to the Health and Social Care Committee
- PDA’s Chairman gives evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee
- The PDA’s roadmap. Reducing unnecessary A&E attendances and avoidable hospital admissions in England
- Wider than Medicines
- Pharmacy technicians: an assessment of the current UK landscape, and proposals to develop community pharmacist and pharmacy technician roles and skill mix to meet the needs of the public
- How lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic can help to support better integration in NHS Primary Care
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 newly qualified.
Read about our key member benefits here.