HEALTH PLUS
HEALTH PLUS? OR MINUS?
THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN PUBLIC HEALTH WAS OFFERED TO COMMUNITY PHARMACIES IN AN INITIATIVE BY THE PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY AND HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE BOARD TO ENHANCE THE ROLE OF PHARMACIES IN PROMOTING PUBLIC HEALTH AND TO DEVELOP A PUBLIC HEALTH ETHOS WITHIN PHARMACY.
Health Plus Pharmacy would, according to the literature:
* deliver a broad range of public health services
* promote healthy living and wellbeing
* offer at least one non-pharmacist staff member, who would act as the Well-Being Advisor
* be easily recognisable to the public and other healthcare professionals
* be proactive in making every interaction count
By the beginning of this year, an initial cohort of nine pharmacies had gone through the – by any standards – rigorous application process and had gained Health Plus accreditation.
26 - PHARMACY IN FOCUS
Since then, however, according to research carried out by PiF, the majority of those who gained the accreditation are beginning to wonder what all their hard work was for.
Among the comments PiF received during the research were:
* ‘We’re not really sure what Health Plus Pharmacy entails’
* ‘We’re not doing anything differently to what we were doing before’
* ‘We would have provided these services anyway, so what difference has Health Plus Pharmacy made?’
One pharmacist, who is particularly concerned about the initiative’s lack of pace, is Eoghan O’Brien from Bannside Pharmacy in Portglenone.
‘It’s certainly nice to have the Health Plus accreditation and we’re very proud to have achieved it,’ Eoghan told PiF, ‘but, to put it simply, there’s really nothing that you can do with it. When we went through the accreditation process, we really put our hearts and souls into the process, and we were promised – among other things - a publicity campaign that would highlight our - and the other eight pharmacies’ – achievement, but, to be honest, there was little - if any – publicity, and we’ve heard nothing since.
‘I’m a great believer in any initiative or pilot that highlights to the public the great work that the community pharmacy can provide, but, bar a few nice logos and a bit of branding in the pharmacy, Health Plus Pharmacy
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