CONFERENCE 2021 PRESENTATION SUMMARIES Pharma and the NHS – the relationship that needs to take the next step? By Anne Turnbull
In this workshop, PIPA Committee member and MI manager at Grunenthal, Harpreet Sandhu was joined by a panel of speakers to explore how Medical Information, as the non-promotional face of the Pharmaceutical Industry, can build on its relationship with the NHS, and wider initiatives, to educate healthcare professionals and promote the safe and effective use of medicines.
Health Education England National Pharmacy Programme
education and training. This includes allowing pharmacists to independently prescribe from registration. They have also introduced a foundation training year – traditionally the pre-registration year - (Year 5) with strengthened supervision and support and collaborative working between higher education institutions, statutory education bodies (such as HEE) and employers.
In the first presentation, Alan Ryan, Director of National Transformation Programmes at Health Education England (HEE), discussed the education and training of pharmacists in light of changes to the NHS environment and the introduction of pharmacy reforms including new prescribing roles. He explained that HEE are working with a variety of partners to enable development and growth of the pharmacy profession.
This year is the first year HEE have implemented the foundation programme, based on learnings from the interim programme. An assessment strategy has been published and an e-portfolio is available to every foundation pharmacist in England. They provide very clear guidance and training materials for designated supervisors, and there is a huge amount of material and resources available for training pharmacists, curated from many sources.
When the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) was formed around 2010, it aimed to regulate pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacies in Great Britain, and part of its remit was to reform pharmacists’ education programmes. Pharmacist Education Reform
The education reforms based on the new standards published by GPhC will result in the undergraduate pharmacy degree being far more clinically based than previously, with students getting rotational clinical placements across all sectors.
HEE has worked closely with employers, GPhC and pharmacists to put in place a codesigned Interim Foundation Pharmacist Programme for pharmacists who were provisionally registered during the COVID-19 pandemic. This gave them the opportunity to trial the programme to see what works well in a foundation training scheme.
Further information about the initial education and training of pharmacists is available at: https://healtheducationyh. onlinesurveys.ac.uk/register-for-ietp-updates
GPhC have recently published new standards for pharmacist training which specify a set of learning outcomes which span the full five years of pharmacist 14
