REVISED RPS PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR HOSPITAL PHARMACY
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has revised its Professional Standards for Hospital Pharmacy Services.
T
he Standards, which describe what good pharmacy services should be and should look like, are designed for providers of
NHS and independent (private) hospital pharmacy services, including those in hospitals (acute and non-acute), mental health, community service, prison, hospice, and ambulance settings.
The Standards, which have been in use since 2012, and which were previously updated in 2014 and 2017, were revised through consultation with members of the profession, multidisciplinary teams and patients.
The latest revised Standards contain two brand new descriptors - research, audit and quality improvement, and inclusion and wellbeing. Updates have been made to the supporting statements to ensure they reflect current practice and are fit for the future.
A new assessment tool has also been developed to support organisations to either self-assess or peer-assess against the Standards. This self- evaluation enables hospital pharmacists to
improve their services by identifying strengths and weaknesses in their performance and the RPS Hospital Expert Advisory Group is particularly keen to hear from any pharmacists, who employ the Standards in this way.
For the first time since they came into existence the Standards apply across the United Kingdom, having this time gained support from Pharmacy Forum NI, alongside endorsement from The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) and other professional groups.
‘APTUK is pleased to support the refreshed Professional Standards for Hospital Pharmacy Services which have a renewed focus on the pharmacy team as a whole to deliver person- centred, inclusive, safe and efficient hospital pharmacy services,’ said Claire Steele, President of APTUK. ‘We encourage pharmacy technicians to support the application of the standards in their practice, actively strive for continuous improvement in service delivery and help others within the pharmacy team to do so too.’
Claire Steele’s words were reinforced by Roger Fernandes, Interim Chair of the RPS Hospital Expert Advisory Group.
‘This refresh of the RPS Hospital Standards,’ he said, ‘was driven by contributions from colleagues, patients and partner organisations, for which we are very grateful.
‘The Standards create consistent quality of patient care across healthcare and provide Chief Pharmacists and Directors of Pharmacy with a set of guidelines against which they can be held accountable. These will be essential in enabling leaders meet the expectations of the General Pharmaceutical Council who will be directly defining their future roles after legislative change comes into force in December.’
The RPS has also updated the Handbook for Hospital Pharmacy Services and it is intended that this will be live by the end of the year. The current Handbook on the RPS site is the 2017 revision.
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THE STANDARDS CREATE CONSISTENT QUALITY OF PATIENT CARE ACROSS HEALTHCARE
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