The RPS in Scotland has today (January 20) launched its manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May.

The manifesto focuses on recognising pharmacists’ expertise in the use of medicines and calls for greater use of pharmacists to deliver better patient care and a more effective NHS. It sets out recommendations to secure a greater clinical role for pharmacists, enable further integration into the NHS and to free up more time for pharmacists to help them to provide more patient care.

Recommendations include giving community pharmacists electronic access to patient records with patient consent and providing greater access to electronic prescribing. In terms of patient services, it specifically calls for:

• Integration of pharmacists into emerging health hubs
• Positioning of pharmacists at the point of admission to hospital
• Integrating a dedicated pharmacist role into care homes and aligning one community pharmacy and one GP practice to each care home
• Implementing the recommendations in the recent out-of-hours report on the future contribution of community pharmacy.

Dr John McAnaw, chair of the Scottish Pharmacy Board, said: "Scotland needs to fully utilise the expertise of pharmacists to ensure people get the best out of their medicines. We are proposing some key initiatives that we believe will make a real difference to patient care, both in supporting patient self-management and in reducing the risk of adverse events from medicines."