Pharmacists must be more involved in STP process says government report

A report by the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care, Barriers and enablers for clinicians moving into senior leadership roles, has advised NHS England to write to sustainability and transformation partnership leaders, encouraging them to include pharmacists in their organisations plans. In March 2016, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society wrote to all 44 STP leads calling for more involvement of pharmacists, but by July 2017, only two thirds of local pharmaceutical committees had been given any opportunity to take part in development plans. The report claims that because boards are required to include a nurse director and a medical director but no other clinical professions, pharmacists “can struggle to get round the table, for example in the current STP process in England. NHS England, in partnership with NHS Improvement, should write to the STP leads asking that they put in place procedures to ensure the STP process draws on the contribution of leadership across all relevant clinical professions including allied health professionals, biomedical scientists and pharmacists.”
Robbie Turner, director of pharmacy and member experience at the RPS, said: “It was really good to see that FMLM had also recognised, like the RPS has done over the past 12 months, the benefit that pharmacists would bring to STPs, or indeed integrated care systems in the future, when they’re looking at how care is provided across their local health economy. The report was clear that pharmacy services, wherever they’re delivered in the community, care homes or general practice, are a bit of a blind spot for STPs. When medicines are such a significant part of STP budgets it’s not tenable for the future for them not to have pharmacists in the senior board level of STP, helping to advise them. Pharmacists have often been brought into these roles to act as pharmacists so the system has expected a certain conversation from them. I think we’re seeing things change now. Pharmacists recognise that what they can bring from their experience can actually be used across the whole system.”
Director of NHS services at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, Alastair Buxton, said: “The engagement of local community pharmacy leaders within the work of STPs and ICS is variable, so we support anything that can improve that situation, including the proposal from the FMLM. NHS England has recently started to pilot support for pharmacy and medicines optimisation leadership across STP/ICS areas; community pharmacy leaders are engaging in this programme and it is a very welcome development.”