Mike Smith puts the world to rights...

I was delighted to read recently about pharmacies’ success in delivering diabetes assessments. Diabetes is a huge problem both in terms of the number of people needing effective treatment as well as the cost to the NHS of ineffective treatment.

It is also set to become an even greater concern: according to Diabetes UK, by 2030, some 4.6 million people will have diabetes, 90 per cent of whom will have type 2 diabetes. Many more people will also have blood sugar levels above the normal range – so-called ‘pre-diabetes’ – and will be at greater risk of developing full-blown diabetes.

Community pharmacy’s greatest asset is that it reaches the parts of the population that other healthcare services cannot reach, which is why this sort of evidence for a new pharmacy role is long overdue. Some 4.6 million people visit pharmacies each day, many of whom are well – or at least who think that they are. No other healthcare professional with such experience of treating people with long term conditions sees so many people as often.

In Scotland, the government has realised the untapped potential of its pharmacy network, and has announced over £1 million in cash to boost supplementary and independent prescribing by pharmacists during 2014/15. This is great news, as it brings with it the potential for pharmacies to offer patients ‘onestop’ healthcare. In the future, we might even see pharmacies assessing risk, screening, diagnosing and prescribing for patients with diabetes, who will benefit from a lead healthcare professional who is readily accessible and who knows their situation first-hand.

Treatment could be initiated and managed by a professional who is expert in medicines and who can prescribe treatments that are suited to the patient’s individual beliefs and concerns, as well as their lifestyle choices and needs. It is not hard to imagine the benefit that this could bring to patient care and to adherence.

Even better news is the fact that pharmacists and technicians could be taking on the much-needed role in public health without fear of prosecution if a single dispensing error occurs. This change cannot come soon enough. The pharmacy team’s potential to save unnecessary suffering and unnecessary treatment costs cannot be missed – simply for want of a piece of longoverdue legislation.

I was also pleased to see that Lord Howe is willing to talk to pharmacy before the next election – I trust that what he means is that he will also be able to engage positively with pharmacy after the next election if the Conservatives are re-elected!

Equally heartening is the news that 85 per cent of this year’s pre-registration trainees have passed their pre-registration exam – and hats off must go to Scotland where the average pass rate is said to be even higher. Pharmacy is changing – it seems we read about this almost on a daily basis – so it is great to know that the future of our profession, as well as the welfare of the patients that we see, is in the hands of such a talented group of young people.

Young pharmacists have a habit of challenging the status quo, which is just what the profession will need if we are going to achieve our ambitions for pharmacist prescribing, new roles in public health and taking the lead on the management of long term conditions. These are all really big prizes for the profession of pharmacy, and there will be plenty of nay-sayers along the way; people who will say that pharmacy teams are not up to the mark; that all pharmacies can do is dispense packets of medication; that patients don’t want pharmacies to take on these roles. These young pharmacists, with all their knowledge, ambition and enthusiasm, are just the people we need to show the sceptics just how wrong they are.

Mike Smith is chairman of Alliance Healthcare, mike.h.smith@alliance-healthcare.co.uk._