Nicola Adams on staying fighting fit – physically and mentally
PUTTING patients at the centre of their care has always been my mantle. As I step down as chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Welsh Board this year, I have never been more confident that patients will continue to derive more and more benefits from pharmacy services in Wales.
As the professional leadership body for pharmacists, we think that Welsh citizens will benefit more from pharmacy services with increased recognition and investment in pharmaceutical care services.
We are calling on the Welsh Government to make specific changes in pharmacy services to improve patient experience, support pharmacy professionals in their roles, and help to make Wales one of the safest countries in the world to take medicines.
Change must be directed by the needs of patients as well as technological and scientific developments.
Investing in new technologies is a key challenge ahead. The need for digital prescriptions has never been so clear. A future where digital prescriptions can be made and transferred between GPs, doctors and pharmacy services will have real benefits. It will speed up processes, ensure greater accuracy and record keeping, and make the prescribing and dispensing of medicines even safer in Wales.
This sounds simple but it is a complex technological challenge and we need investment in this to move us to a modern and efficient system fit for the 21st century.
Giving community pharmacy permissions to look at GP-held patient records when dealing with patient prescriptions and delivering more clinical services is also something that requires action. This work is ongoing but an acceleration of progress is needed.
The profession is now an integral part of hospital ward teams and many pharmacists now manage the care of patients, including their prescribing in specialist clinics.
Pharmacists are running clinics in the community to review medicines so patients have the opportunity to ask advice and ensure they get the best from their medicines, and community pharmacists are increasing access to care by prescribing for common illnesses in the local pharmacy.
Pharmacists are also working much more closely with other professionals, using their unique knowledge of medicines to improve patient care. Over the next five to 10 years, pharmacists will also have an important role to play in the emergence of new treatments – pharmacogenomics – treatments that are based on an individual’s genetic make-up and medicines which are personalised to respond uniquely to that person.
In the future, patients could be able to walk into their own local pharmacy for a genetic test as part of personalised medicines services. This of course will take investment and that’s why we are asking the Welsh Government to invest in pharmacist training in this area so the pharmacy profession can contribute to this exciting future.