WORKFORCE


tImE to PUt thEorY Into PractIcE


aS a Long-tErm StratEgY for northErn IrELanD’S hEaLth anD SocIaL carE WorKforcE IS UnVEILED, PIf LooKS at thE PLanS for commUnItY PharmacY... anD LooKS... anD LooKS...


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t’s estimated that the total health and social care field in northern Ireland (nI) – including the public,


private and voluntary sectors – accounts for more than 120,000 jobs in northern Ireland, with around £2.3 billion a year invested in directly employed hSc staffing. When you consider that the total health and social care budget is £5 billion, it’s not difficult to see why there is so much concern over this issue.


the recently-published health and Social care Workforce Strategy 2026: Delivering for our People has set out its goals for a workforce that will match the requirements of a ‘transformed system’ and also addresses the need to tackle serious challenges with supply, recruitment and retention of staff.


a careful reading of the document (which has lovely pictures…) reminds you of another document that was heavy on the ‘why’ but super light when it came to the ‘how’.


transforming Your care (remember?) was great on the ‘where we are now,


where we need to be’, but couldn’t really put the meat on the bones… fractured, arthritic or whatever. It’s probably fair to say this Workforce Strategy isn’t any clearer on the ‘how to’.


‘colleagues,’ it states, ‘across health and social care need the opportunity to develop skills and expertise, whilst maintaining the provision of personalised, compassionate care.’ agreed.


‘We need,’ it says, ‘more investment in people and effective workforce engagement and planning. We need to support our people.’ Definitely.


‘Ultimately, our aim is, by 2026, to meet our workforce needs – and the needs of our workforce.’ admirable.


all very honourable objectives. there is, however, only one thing missing… how they’re going to be achieved.


to illustrate the point, let’s take one of the themes as an example…


theme: multi-disciplinary and inter- professional working and training.


action: Planning for and introducing new roles.


output: • needs analysis of new roles required.


• Pilot and evaluation of physician associate (Pa) students trained at Ulster University.


• recruitment of Pas into newly- created posts.


• ongoing training programme in nI to provide a supply of Pas into hSc.


• assess actions for other potential new roles.


all very admirable, but here’s a thought… why not put the money that’s going into some of these new and exciting policies and programmes into funding clinical work carried out by community pharmacists, who are capable of undertaking many of the responsibilities of today’s gPs?


In tandem with the launch of the report, the Department of health also confirmed details of an initial allocation of £15m in workforce


development from the £100m transformation fund for 2018/19.


around a third of the £15m will be directed towards the nursing, midwifery and allied health Professional workforce and this will include funding for 74 additional pre- registration nursing places and 25 additional midwifery places.


combined, this will mean a total of 1000 nursing and midwifery training places are being commissioned from universities in 2018/19 – an all-time high in northern Ireland.


So far, so good….at least for nursing. But what about pharmacy?


‘health and social care colleagues work tirelessly to provide the care needed by patients and other service users,’ Department of health Permanent Secretary, richard Pengelly, said at the launch. ‘the system could not run without the skill, dedication and commitment of our talented, hard-working colleagues, across all disciplines, professions and levels.


> PharmacY In focUS - 21


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