YPG - Pharmacy Practice in Great Britain 
An Interview with Lindsay McClure MRPharmS

What options are available to pharmacy graduates in England?

Approximately 65% of British pharmacists are employed in community/retail pharmacy with an increasing number of pharmacists choosing to be employees for large companies or to be self-employed locums rather than owning their own pharmacy.  20% of pharmacists work in hospital pharmacies with other "traditional" career options including industrial pharmacy, teaching and research.

Over the past few years, a number of exciting new careers have emerged including "pharmaceutical advisers," "prescribing support pharmacists" and "medicines management pharmacist."  Pharmaceutical Advisers have strategic roles and are responsible for the regional co-ordination of pharmaceutical services, analyzing prescribing practices and patterns and helping to achieve the cost effective use of medicines.  Prescribing support pharmacists have a more practical role and work at the doctors clinic level.  They are involved in clinical audit and repeat prescribing reviews.  Medicines Management Pharmacists work at the individual patient level and are involved in patient medication reviews.

What has been your career/work experience since graduating?

After graduating from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in 1998, I undertook a split pre-registration training year at the National Pharmaceutical Association and in a community pharmacy in North London.  I qualified as a pharmacist in 1999 and after locuming for a few years in various community pharmacies;  I joined the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) as an administrative pharmacist.  PSNC is the organisation that negotiates with the Government, on behalf of community pharmacies in England and Wales, for the funding pharmacies receive as part of the British National Health Service (NHS).

What are some of the problems facing pharmacy practice in England today and how do you think they can be overcome?

Over the past few months, the British Government has launched a number of consultations, which have serious implications for pharmacy practice in England.  In mid January, the Government department responsible for completion in the UK, made a recommendation that any qualified pharmacist should be able to open a pharmacy anywhere.  This is currently tightly controlled with pharmacies having to apply for a National Health Service Contract to dispense NHS Prescriptions.  If the Government accepts the recommendation, it will open up the pharmacy market to the advantage of supermarket pharmacies (including Tesco and Asda-Walmart), resulting in many established small independent pharmacies being forced to close.  Pharmacists across the country are now lobbying the Government to prevent the recommendation becoming law.

The government has also launched a "skill mix" consultation, to investigate how the roles of pharmacy staff can be changed to optimize the efficiency of the dispensing process and to support the profession as pharmacists assume new roles including pharmacist prescribing and community pharmacy based medication reviews.  Again, this  could have far reaching implications for practice with one suggestion being that the pharmacist would no longer be required to be present at all times in the pharmacy which could greatly damage one of community pharmacies key assets - the accessibility and availability for pharmacists.

2003 will be a critical year for community pharmacy in Britain, many difficult decisions and changes will have to be made and it is essential that they are managed well now to ensure that the profession can use the current threats as a platform to developing our professional role.

More information on Community Pharmacy in Great Britain is available on the PSNC Website: www.psnc.org.uk