RPS England Board meeting - June update

Commenting on the key outcomes from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s English Pharmacy Board meeting on 20-21 June, Board Chair Sandra Gidley said:

“The Board unanimously supported a motion reaffirming our opposition to cuts to the community pharmacy contract. We also set out our continued commitment to work with others towards a positive and financially sustainable future for community pharmacy to ensure the public can benefit from patient-facing clinical services.

“We expressed our support for a paper presented to the Board on the problem of stress within the pharmacy workforce, recognising the additional challenges brought on by the financial pressures felt by many within the profession. This is an issue facing all of the health professions and the Board committed to raising this with the Pharmacy Minister and to engage with the NHS, employers and other pharmacy bodies on how pharmacists’ health and wellbeing can be better supported.

“With a growing number of people taking multiple medicines, patient safety rightly continues to be in the spotlight, so we were pleased to be updated about the important work being led by the RPS to develop new standards on polypharmacy. We look forward to the launch of a formal consultation on the proposed standards and would encourage members, pharmacy organisations and NHS leaders to engage with the process and share their views.”

The English Pharmacy Board discussed a motion on community pharmacy cuts tabled by Board member Sid Dajani, which was subsequently withdrawn.

A new motion was proposed and unanimously approved by all members of the English Pharmacy Board, below:

“The English Pharmacy Board wholly opposes and condemns the community pharmacy cuts. The Board has consistently been united in its opposition to the cuts and there has never been any dissent from the position taken. We continue to work closely with other pharmacy organisations and will continue to press for a positive and financially sustainable future for community pharmacy so that the public can benefit from a viable community pharmacy network, providing an increased number of patient-facing clinical services.”