Digital transformation and women’s health were the focus of a positive meeting between RPS Scotland and the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, Maree Todd MSP, on 8 September.
Clare Morrison, RPS Director for Scotland, said: “We stated that the biggest digital transformation that the Scottish Government could make for pharmacy is the introduction of a single shared patient record. It would improve patient safety, improve the quality of care for patients, enable key priority areas like integration of health and care and reducing drug deaths, and reduce workload for pharmacists.”
RPS Scotland would like to see the Scottish Government place an increased focus on delivering a single shared record more quickly, address key enablers such as individual Office 365 licences for all pharmacy professionals for authentication purposes, and engage with the public and professionals on the introduction of shared records. Other digital topics discussed were ePrescribing and NHS Near Me.
On Women’s Health, we discussed the key recommendations from the RPS Women’s Health position statement (available here).
Andrew Carruthers, Scottish Pharmacy Board Chair, said: “We talked about reducing the stigma associated with women’s health issues and how pharmacy could play an important role in this, helping women to have conversations about their health and what’s normal. We also discussed the need for better education for health professionals on women’s health.”