NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF


SIGN COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE SOUGHT


An opportunity has arisen for a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland (RPS) to represent RPS and the wider pharmacy community on the SIGN Council.


Noreen Downes Principal Pharmacist, Scottish Medicines Consortium has recently stepped down from this national clinical and professional leadership role. This is one of two positions, with Alan Timmins Principal Pharmacist, NHS Fife also representing RPS on the SIGN programme advisory group. The exact split of responsibilities, can be agreed at a later date.


The specifi c responsibilities include:


•To attend all meetings of SIGN Council or to arrange for a deputy to attend in their place.


•To represent the views of the RPS body and to report to RPS information on the activities of SIGN.


•To coordinate with the Professional Support Pharmacist, RPS and The Director of Pharmacy (HIS) recommendations for pharmacists to guideline development group members and Chairs.


•To Chair national open meetings for the consultation aspect of draft guidelines as requested by SIGN Council.


•To review in a timely fashion all editorial comments for specifi c guidelines via participation in the virtual editorial group for guidelines relevant to their specialism.


•To participate in promotional activities following publication of guidelines as requested by SIGN Council.


Annamarie McGregor, Professional Support Lead will be supporting the successful candidate in this role as will the Chief Pharmacist at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Laura McIver. Please also read the SIGN Clinical Engagement Compact outlining the professional development and recognition benefi ts to you and your NHS Board and the SIGN Standing Orders.


Nomination along with CV and a supporting statement from your employer or line manager need to be received by Friday 11th December 2015. If you would like to discuss this opportunity in more detail please contact Annamarie McGregor on either 0131 524 2007 or annamarie.mcgregor@rpharms.com


54 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST Working together ‘On the Edge’


Pharmacy teams from four health boards in north Scotland are working together to develop and promote innovative services in remote and rural areas.


of pharmacy practice. It includes pharmacy professionals working in community pharmacies, GP practices, hospitals and social care settings.


The fi rst pilot is developing a telehealth clinical pharmacy service for patients in care homes in remote and rural areas of NHS Highland.


Clare Morrison, NHS Highland’s Lead Pharmacist


The announcement of the new collaboration was to be made at NHS Highland’s annual Research, Development and Innovation Conference in Inverness.


The teams from NHS Highland, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles have come together in collaboration with Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, to form a ‘Pharmacy On The Edge’ group. The name was chosen to symbolise the leading-edge approach the teams take, and the remote and rural areas in which they work.


The group is encouraging new service development in all sectors


At present, it is diffi cult for these patients to access personalised clinical pharmacy services such as in-depth medication review and counselling about medicines. The service is being developed by a primary care clinical pharmacist based in Dingwall, initially with care homes in Lochaber. The pharmacist has established regular clinics with patients by videoconference.


Patricia Hannam, Primary Care Clinical Pharmacist (telehealth lead) with NHS Highland’s north and west Highland operational unit, told the conference, “Through telehealth technologies there is the possibility for all patients in NHS Highland, no matter where they live, to have clinical pharmacy input into their medicines.”


The second pilot involves a clinical pharmacist supporting dispensing GP practices in two areas of NHS Highland.


The Pharmacist provides in-depth medication review clinics at the dispensing practices to ensure that patients are prescribed safe and effective medicines, and gives patients an opportunity to discuss their medicines with a pharmacist. Initial results from the pilot in Caithness and Sutherland shows that it is valued by GPs and patients, with signifi cant improvements in medicines care.


Clare Morrison, NHS Highland’s lead Pharmacist (north), said, “Patients in remote and rural areas are just as entitled to high-quality, safe pharmaceutical services as patients living in urban areas.”


A logo has been developed for the Pharmacy On The Edge collaborative and regular updates on the teams’ work will be posted on Twitter using the hashtag #PharmEdge.


How ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland) can help pharmacies


By Rebecca Darge, Digital Project Manager, ALISS


I work for the ALISS programme, which is delivered by the Health and Social Care ALLIANCE Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government. ALISS has been designed in collaboration with people with long term conditions and offers an information service and digital tools to make information about sources of support for health and wellbeing more fi ndable.


A range of support is of value for health and wellbeing: from local activities, events and opportunities to services, yet historically much information has been hidden within communities or spread across


multiple websites and directories.


To address this problem ALISS gathers information into one list (index) and makes that list available via the many places where people might look for information or interact with another person who might help them fi nd it. The goal of ALISS is to make information more fi ndable.


Community Pharmacy Scotland recognises the importance of this and the role that Pharmacists often play in signposting people to local resources. A search function has been added to the Community Pharmacy Scotland website so that you can easily access the ALISS index to signpost people to services in your local community.


Community Pharmacy Scotland has also set up each of its members with an ALISS account and added their pharmacy as a resource to the ALISS index. This means that anybody who searches the ALISS index can fi nd out about the services that your Pharmacy provides and you can add to and update that information when necessary.


My role is to work with pharmacists to fi nd out if there are ways that ALISS could help you, both as a signposting tool and a way of advertising the unique services that your Pharmacy provides. If you would like to fi nd out more about this please contact me at Rebecca. Darge@alliance-scotland.org.uk and I would be more than happy to help.


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