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Including a community pharmacy pilot in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) is great news, says Professor John Cromarty, Scottish Pharmacy Board chair

PHARMACY IS OFTEN described as a risk averse profession, contrasted, for example, with the medical profession's approach to dealing with uncertainty. However there are strengths in pharmacists' ability to detect errors in their scrutiny of prescriptions and in their advice on drug interactions that provide important protection for patients.

With the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Bill now approved by the Scottish Parliament, it will become even more crucial that pharmacists' contribution to medicines safety is integrated within the wider health and social care system. Access and input into a shared patient record is clearly important in enabling effective collaboration and partnership working between health and social care professionals in order to improve patient care.

Positive impact

Within community-based care, there is a particular opportunity for pharmacists to become more fully involved in the relevant parts of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP). This was launched in 2008 to reduce adult mortality and adverse events in acute hospitals by the end of 2012.

Mortality was reduced by 12.4 per cent

In that time mortality was reduced by 12.4 per cent across Scotland. However, while that was the programme's key aim, it also demonstrated a real positive impact for patients, such as reduced infection rates and reliability in the completion of surgical checklists that are a key part of the care of patients receiving any surgical procedure. The programme was recently awarded funding from the Health Foundation to test the expansion further into community pharmacy.

Great news

The inclusion of the community pharmacy pilot in the SPSP is great news. Full inclusion of community pharmacy in medicines reconciliation, particularly when patients enter and return from other care settings (e.g. hospital or care home), will provide more clear information for all professionals involved. This will improve safety and overall patient care.

The Scottish Government's increased focus and acknowledgement of the clinical and patient-facing role of pharmacists can only be welcomed, but it will be crucial that we get patients' buy-in and understanding of the expert input on medicines that pharmacists can provide.