NHS trusts — chief pharmacist

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The role of the chief pharmacist

The chief pharmacist plays a key role in medicines management within the NHS trust. Pharmacy departments within teaching hospitals may be quite large and therefore the chief pharmacist will be responsible for a large team of information pharmacists, clinical pharmacists, formulation pharmacists, formulary pharmacists, etc. Medicine information pharmacists play a key role in the managed entry of new drugs into the NHS.

Formulary pharmacists also play an important role in determining which medicines are available, both within the hospital and across primary and secondary care. The chief pharmacist will play a critical role in the management of these areas.

For NHS influencers interested in more detail on developments in hospital pharmacy, look at the material posted on the DrugInfoZone website on the hospital effectiveness project. Many examples of good practice are given. This also relates to the Audit Commission’s report A spoonful of sugar.

A spoonful of sugar: medicines management in NHS hospitals

Although this is an old document, it is an important one that NHS influencers should be aware of. A spoonful of sugar: medicines management in NHS hospitals was published by the Audit Commission in 2001. The report sought to answer the question, does the trust provide an effective medicines management service?

Data was provided to the Audit Commission on staffing, services provided, workload, skill mix, medicines budget and expenditure. The report makes 33 major recommendations for medicines management in hospitals. One of these suggestions was that the chief pharmacist should be a board member and become more involved at a strategic level. Note that the medicines management collaborative now includes acute trusts and includes many ideas contained in the Audit Commission report.

An example of this wider role is the chief pharmacist at Hull and East Riding Community Health NHS Trust. From the advertisement in the Health Service Journal we learn that this particular chief pharmacist will help shape mental health and learning disability services across the patch linked to Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and the PCT pharmaceutical advisers. Key areas for development will include the implementation of NICE guidance and ‘pushing the boundaries and potential for pharmacy and pharmacists through extended roles and health promotion and disease management.’

NHS influencers may need to consider whether such networks of pharmacists require networked account management.