Professional skills and pharmacy contract must align

摘要

THAT the community pharmacy "Call to action" closed and new standards for pharmacy consultation skills launched on the same day (18 March 2014) was not part of anyone's master plan. Yet it seems quite apt, since stakeholders' visions for the former (News feature, p326) surely cannot be realised without pharmacy professionals having got to grips with the latter (News, p325, and News feature, p328). The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education and Health Education England worked with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK and other stakeholders to create the standards and a suite of accompanying tools under the "Consultation skills for pharmacy practice" banner. The resource was born out of 2012 proposals from the Modernising Pharmacy Careers programme (now within HEE) to strengthen the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who work with patients.