Consultation for first ever professional standards for community pharmacy begins

Consultation has started on the work the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will undertake on the first ever Professional Standards for Community Pharmacy Services. Events have been organized for London, Glasgow and Cardiff for the start of 2019 in order to include community pharmacists, pharmacy teams, patients and the public in the consultation to define best practice across the sector, effective systems, and to encourage consistent, high quality patient care. The standards will be developed in line within the gold standard of NICE accreditation, and will provide a framework which will support pharmacy teams to continually improve the care they deliver, create more consistent services between providers, and inspire trust.

Robbie Turner, director of pharmacy and member experience at the RPS, said: “Delivery of quality services is the bedrock of being a pharmacy professional. This is a genuinely exciting project which help drive quality and enable teams to know what they are aiming for, and that they are doing the right thing. We all need to know what good looks like so we can aim high. Organisations that use and measure themselves against professional standards are more likely to provide good care, which is ultimately what all pharmacists and patients want.”