At our sessions held on each day of the Pharmacy Show we called for intelligent debate from across the profession to agree a clear vision for supervision in community pharmacy and we continue to encourage the profession to engage in a constructive debate.
We start from the belief that a pharmacy is safer with the presence of a pharmacist and that the rules on supervision need to be changed in a way that makes the pharmacist more accessible to the public in a community pharmacy setting, not less so. We welcome the offers of collaborative working from various organisations during the sessions and have highlighted the importance of the role of pharmacy technicians and the need to include them in this debate.
On this specific issue we are responding to the legitimate anxieties and concerns of our members following the leaked publication of discussions from the Rebalancing Board. Prior to media coverage of those discussions, we were unaware of the extent to which these ideas were being developed.
We would welcome further engagement from Ken Jarrold, so that the whole pharmacy sector is involved in shaping the role of the profession rather than a select few and we have already written to him in a joint letter with the NPA who have publicly stated they share our concerns and applaud the efforts we are making to resolve this sensitive situation.
This is not about defending the status quo but ensuring that those best placed to develop the professional role and who also understand how a new approach to supervision would best benefit patient care, practicing pharmacists at the coalface, are engaged in the debate
Notes for Editors:
The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) is a not for profit organisation and trade union which aims to act upon and support the needs of individual pharmacists and, when necessary, to defend their reputation. It currently has more than 27,000 members.
The primary aims of the PDA are to:
- Support pharmacists in their legal, practice and employment needs.
- Represent the individual or collective concerns of pharmacists in the most appropriate manner.
- Proactively seek to influence the professional, practice and employment agenda to support members.
- Lead and support initiatives designed to improve the knowledge and skills of pharmacists in managing risk and safe practices, so improving patient care.
- Work with like-minded organisations to further improve the membership benefits to individual pharmacists.
- Provide insurance cover to safeguard and defend the reputation of the individual pharmacist.
Editors requiring further information should contact:
Paul Day
Tel: 0121 694 7000,