a recenT OnLIne BrIeFIng FOr The MeDIcIneS SecTOr LOOKeD aT The FuTure FOr MeDIcIneS In ScOTLanD. SP LISTeneD In…


WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR MEDICINES? r


ecently, three of Scotland’s senior healthcare professionals took part in an online briefing organised by healthandcare.scot.


The professionals – Professor alison Strath, Principal Pharmaceutical officer at the Scottish government (and now interim chief


Pharmaceutical Officer); Jan Jones, Senior Pharmacist at Scottish Medicines consortium and Lindsay Mcclure, associate Director, Medicines Pricing and Supply at nhS national Services Scotland – reflected on the year so far, the impact of the cOVID-19 pandemic and looked ahead to what they thought the rest of the year might hold.


PROFESSOR ALISON STRATH


COVID-19


Professor Strath felt that the four nations’ governments, the nhS and the pharmaceutical industry had worked closely together throughout the period of the cOVID-19 pandemic, particularly in terms of supporting new healthcare delivery models.


The nhS Pharmaceutical Specials Service based at nhS Tayside supported cOVID assessment centres


32 - ScOTTISh PharMacIST


and hubs as well as in/out of hours services, providing pre-packaged and pre-labelled medicines to support people’s discharge from hospital and end-of-life care at home.


The work over recent years planning for eu exit-related shortages had had a positive impact on understanding the pharmaceutical supply chain and had informed the steps needed to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain.


national procurement had, Professor Strath felt, played a central role in ensuring the nhS did not run out of critical care medicines at the peak of the first cOVID wave.


The Scottish government and nhS had worked alongside their uK counterparts to ensure a uK-wide approach to areas such as the repurposing of certain medicines; use of the early access to Medicines Scheme and rapid assimilation, dissemination and implementation of research evidence into evolving practice. This included exploring new treatments for cOVID-19, the extension of the flu vaccination programme to a broader population and ensuring arrangements for the temporary or


rapid licensing of new cOVID treatments and future vaccines.


Remobilisation of the NHS In terms of remobilising the nhS, Professor Strath felt that key priorities included maintaining core public health functions, ensuring preventative and reactive care, and delivering integrated scheduled and unscheduled care.


There was, she felt, a desire to learn the lessons from how the nhS responded to the cOVID-19 pandemic and hold onto new ways of delivering services, where possible.


Priorities in medicines’ policy


Professor Strath acknowledged that the uK early access to Medicines scheme had played a part during cOVID-19 in terms of allowing access to medicines, such as remdesivir, prior to licensing and felt that that was a willingness within


government to continue to explore innovative options to improve access to new medicines.


She accepted, however, that this needed to be seen against the priorities for the nhS over the next six months.


Future challenges


With regard to future challenges, Professor Strath said that the focus remains on planning to manage any future cOVID-19 outbreaks, as well as planning for the winter period and remobilising services. The priorities, she said, would be seasonal flu and cOVID-19 vaccination programmes and strengthening public health resources to respond to contact tracing and testing.


This year’s Programme for government would, she said, look ‘very different’ and would aim to respond to the impact of the pandemic.


In closing, Professor Strath said that maintaining strong working relationships between the Scottish government and stakeholders, including the pharmaceutical industry, would be very important in the way that Scotland responds to, and maintains, safe and effective access to medicines in the face of the range of challenges in the forthcoming months.


In terms of the nIce process review, Professor Strath said that this may have implications for Scotland and Scottish government officials would have to consider this with the Scottish Medicines consortium.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48