The Pharmacist’s roundtable on independent prescribers

The Pharmacist’s latest roundtable covers the current and future issues surrounding the roll out independent prescriber status for new MPharm graduates.

This roundtable brings together six leading pharmacists from five universities across the UK along with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) to discuss how courses and students have had to rapidly adapt to the new requirements.

As more is expected from pharmacists to help meet the demands placed on the NHS, we discussed how this new cohort would enter the workforce and what support they might need. 

Getting access to placements was highlighted as a challenge, particularly in general practice, as was seeing examples of independent prescribing in community pharmacy.

However, all the delegates agreed that the policy direction was exciting for the profession as a whole.

‘Certainly, our students are excited about being prescribers, but they’re not quite sure where it’s going post foundation training, and in terms of where they’re going to go with their scope of practice,’ said Nilesh Patel, Director of clinical pharmacy, King’s College London.

‘As a pharmacist, I’m quite excited that we got there despite all the challenges. Pharmacists being accessible and providing prescribing power [means] we can enhance medicine optimisation and the treatment of people. It’s quite an interesting dynamic and a recognition of our training,’ said Reem Kayyali Head, Department of Pharmacy, Kingston University.

Editor of The Pharmacist, Victoria Vaughan said: ‘The move to have all pharmacy graduates as independent prescribers will have a significant change on how the profession can operate and how it is viewed.

‘However, experienced pharmacists are quick to point out that a prescribing power early in a career is quite daunting. These new graduates will need to be well supported to succeed. This discussion shines a light on what the new generation of pharmacists hope for and what the sector needs to do to support them.’

The Pharmacist roundtables examine the core issues facing the profession across community and practice.  

The roundtables are part of our comprehensive offering for our pharmacists, with recent roundtables covering the initial six months of Pharmacy First, as well as the relationship between community pharmacy and integrated care systems.

For the opportunity to reach our audience of frontline professionals across pharmacy through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.