ULSTER CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION IN FOCUS
Welcome
THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY?
There’s no doubt that the community pharmacy landscape is undergoing a period of transition. Next month, for example, the first tranche of newly-appointed practice based pharmacists will take up their posts. These new roles certainly have the potential to enhance the already strong relationships and collaborative working partnerships that exist between GPs and pharmacists in the community, and will once again highlight the potential for the role of the community pharmacist in primary care.
With pharmacy in its current period of transition, pharmacists naturally have both
concerns about the short-term future and queries as to how this newly-enhanced role will look, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to put some of these queries to the new Health Minister who, with fewer than six months in post, has certainly proved that she has taken up post with a very proactive attitude.
On a practical level, the merger of NI two main wholesalers and the arrival of Alliance in the wholesale market along with Phoenix means that there has never been so much choice in the wholesale market for contractors. After the initial teething problems with integrating computer systems and new contacts to get to know, it will be interesting to see how this benefits the contractor.
The UCA will, as always, be on hand to
help with any areas of concern that our members have. It is vital that pharmacy continues to have access to a first-class wholesale service but is also able to avail of the extended services that we need to provide in order to flourish. The various wholesalers have many options available and I hope that they will make life easier for independent contractors who do not have access to the back office that larger multiple organisations have.
The new pre-reg students are just getting started on their practical year in pharmacy. Many have enrolled on the UCA pre-reg training course for the upcoming year. The course has been completely revamped to offer more direction to the student when preparing for their exam. It will continue to provide a great training resource for those students wanting to become professional,
PROMOTING AND PROTECTING COMMUNITY & PRIMARY CARE PHARMACY IN NORTHERN IRELAND
well rounded pharmacists, allowing the student to experience all aspects of community pharmacy and preparing them for the many varied situations that will arise when qualified. We hope that it will more than meet the expectations of both students and employers alike. Your feedback will always be greatly welcomed.
Cliff McElhinney President, UCA
Representation Pharmacist blog by Mairead Conlon SUMMER DIARY
CPD process- if you have any ideas you want to share- feel free to let me know.
I hope the summer has been good to you all and you are, like me, looking forward to what the next few months will bring.
After my series of June events I am delighted to be in a position where after collating your feedback, I have spent time with our Education team and we will be rolling out a number of training events you asked for, delivered regionally, throughout the year ahead. If you have a training need, let us know and it may be something we can provide.
For me July started very busy as I am a CPD Assessor, so I had a tight deadline to get my allocation of portfolios all marked! I have since met with Michelle McCorry to see how the UCA help to improve the whole
Tel: 028 9065 6576
www.uca.org.uk
I had the pleasure of meeting with Daniel Young, the PSNI’s new Pre-registration Lead. I talked him through the detail of the new UCA Prereg training course and he was (obviously!!) very impressed! So I can’t wait until we get this up and running this month and Sharon and myself will endeavour to deliver an excellent programme to your Graduate pharmacists.
At the UCA we have been supporting pharmacists on completion of the paperwork for the Community Pharmacy Quality Assurance Framework visits....we hope to open discussion of the what exactly “quality” looks like and the encourage the facilitation of pharmacists to deliver quality
services eg by the access to electronic care record. We will continually have that conversation and push for this on your behalf to all relevant stakeholders- it simply needs to happen.
I also have been working with Kathy Martin and Joanne Morgan from CDHN- lots of great work going on constantly with the BCPP projects, and they have funding available ongoing to give to projects. So if are interested in setting up a partnership and may not be sure how to go about it, please let me know. I have worked on two brilliant BCPP projects previously in Lurgan and Dungannon and they can be such a rewarding part of the job where we can really make a massive difference in our local communities- sure isn’t that what it’s all about?
Looking forward to meeting more of you over the coming months and as always just let me know how I can support you and your staff.
Contact UCA Office on 02890656576 or email
mairead@uca.org.uk
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