INTERVIEW


“I genuinely think that there is a bright future ahead – if we want it. We have got to be fully aware that things are changing. We've got the health and social care partnerships but we have to look at how we link into the social care agenda, because everything is telling me in policy terms that people want to be treated at home, or closer to home, and kept out of hospital”


funded, is important. It is also - at the same time - about looking ahead to what the new service looks like and how we fit with current government policy.


For us, it is about trying to maintain the current accurate and high-level supply level function that we provide and, at the same time, about moving into a care-focused environment that keeps people at home.


So, in terms of the negotiations, it is about how you deal with the fiscal bit in challenging times of austerity while, at the same time, moving the services along to mirror what the policy direction is.


We have to be changing in a changing healthcare system because, if we stay with the same rigid approach, or remain wedded to services of the past, that is where we will be left: in the past.


JM: As more is expected of you, is there ever any more money on the table or is there always a gap between what is expected of community pharmacy and what is available to spend on meeting those expectations?


HM:We’ve seen both. We have been successful in managing to get some


form of uplift, perhaps not always keeping up with inflation, but equally we face the same expectation as every other part of the health service in that there will be efficiency gains in whatever we do.


And there are times when there is nothing left in the pot and we have to look at how we tailor what we do so we don't deliver any less, but get better at serving the cohort of patients with whom we know for sure that we can actually make a difference.


JM: How difficult is it to bring over 1200 pharmacists with you all at the same speed?


HM: It can be challenging. It's the typical bell curve. We are always going to have those who are on the leading edge and others following. What is clear is that we cannot wait on 1200 all being euphoric about the direction of travel. We have to go with the majority and assist the rest to follow us. After all, patients vote with their feet.


It's a good thing about community pharmacy, I think that if your service level is not up to what a patient wants, they will move to someone who will deliver the service that they are seeking.


We have to keep an eye ahead, looking to the future and meeting government policy and the expectations of patients. Rose Marie Parr's Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care strategy is helpful, and we need to be ensuring that we fit with that vision.


The organisation has worked hard over the last year with the policy development team getting consistent messages out to members through a weekly newsletter, using soundbites and snapshots because we recognise that our colleagues in the community are not short of work at the moment.


It’s really important to share information with members to help keep them on board, and informed and able to accept some of the changes that we're looking to implement.


JM:What do you think lies ahead?


HM: I genuinely think that there is a bright future ahead – if we want it. We have got to be fully aware that things are changing. We've got the health and social care partnerships


but we have to look at how we link into the social care agenda, because everything is telling me in policy terms that people want to be treated at home, or closer to home, and kept out of hospital.


When you've got a network of pharmacies that are recognised as being in the heart of communities – and Audit Scotland’s report tells us that many of those pharmacies are in areas that are classified as deprived communities – is there more we can do to be recognised as the first port of call for health interventions?


If we have that structured network already, how do we make that work in this time of evolving healthcare because, when we are involved, we can link to supply, we can link to pharmaceutical care and I see a bright future if we want it.


We need to change. It's not wholesale change, but we need to be aware that this is dynamic – things are changing. And it is about us keeping ahead of the game, being involved in innovation and getting involved in developments locally. I think we have a real role to play.


PIF COMMENT


‘We have to be changing in a changing healthcare system because, if we stay with the same rigid approach, or remain wedded to services of the past, that is where we will be left: in the past.’


Could we have put it any better than Harry McQuillan? While this interview was recently run in Scottish Pharmacist, we couldn’t help but be struck by Harry McQuillan’s sensible and constructive view of progressing Scotland’s community pharmacy agenda and by its contrast with our stalemate situation in Northern Ireland. As Harry said, there are challenges, but it is everyone speaking with ‘one voice’ that will help to overcome those challenges. Time and time again, all around the world, the benefits that community pharmacy can bring to primary care in general and to patient outcomes in particular has been proven. As far back as 2013, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society talked about ‘leaders within pharmacy’ needing to ‘work with national and local commissioners and providers of other care services to ensure a shift in the balance of funding, contracts and service provision away from dispensing and supply, towards using the professional expertise of pharmacists to enable people to get the most from their medicines and stay healthy.’ ‘Change is the only constant’, as they say, so why can’t pharmacy in Northern Ireland embrace it? Why are pharmacists being forced to remain ‘wedded to the past’? Northern Ireland has the pharmacists. The pharmacists have the skills – and, more importantly - the desire to take their profession forward.


They are speaking and singing with ‘one voice’. But are they singing in the darkness?


PHARMACY IN FOCUS - 9


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