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RPS candidates urged to share their travel health vision

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RPS candidates urged to share their travel health vision

 RCPSG FTMEB's Alex Leung, one of the letter's co-authors

With one day of voting to go in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society board elections, travel health experts from the Faculty of Travel Medicine Education Board (FTMEB) at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG) are urging candidates to share their views on making pharmacy travel clinics more effective and consistent.

An open letter from FTMEB's specialist pharmacist independent prescriber Alex Leung, specialist nurse Deborah Rennie and professor of preventive medicine David Ross voices concerns around the “growing trend for pharmacist-led clinics to focus only on vaccinations and disregard other important aspects of the travel health consultation.”

The authors say they are also concerned about the “quality of advice being given in regard to antimalarial chemoprophylaxis, with some pharmacy travel clinics referencing incorrect sources leading to patients potentially entering malaria risk zones without the necessary chemoprophylaxis and mosquito repellents of the correct strength.

“Unfortunately, it takes just one case of incorrect advice given to destroy the professional image of pharmacy travel clinics and associated vaccination services.”

Core questions

The letter encourages candidates to comment on their plans for “working with relevant professional organisations such as ourselves for drafting guidance and standards all pharmacists could reference.”

It poses three questions to candidates in the RPS board elections:

  1. If you were elected as a board member of the RPS, would you like to lead the RPS in working with the Faculty of Travel Medicine (RCPSG) to immediately address the consistency of the clinician and consultation room standards at pharmacy travel clinics? (Key)
  2. Pharmacy-led services deliver a significant proportion of Travel Health advice to the UK travelling population. What ideas do you have for improving the education of and training for pharmacists, especially those based in the community (Optional)
  3. How might your answer/s help ensure patient/traveller safety, noting both the current focus on adverse effects from the inappropriate use of drugs whennot needed (such as Yellow Fever immunisation) and traveller illness and death as a result of the failure to advise on drugs when required (such as malaria chemoprophylaxis)? (Optional)

Candidates are invited to answer Question 1, or all three questions, through social media or by contacting the RCPSG FTMEB spokespeople directly at alex.leung1@nhs.net. Responses from candidates can be viewed on LinkedIn.

The authors comment on their willingness to collaborate with the RPS “to create a foundation framework regarding education and training, the competencies of pharmacists and the quality of the consultation area within pharmacy vaccination clinics.”

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