The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England (RPS) and National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have published a new report examining the challenges in accessing designated prescribing practitioners in community pharmacy in England.

The report is the outcome of a multi-professional roundtable event in June and proposes further solutions and collaborative actions to build on the current work to support pharmacists and trainees in securing access to a DPP, enabling more of the pharmacy workforce to become prescribers.

The roundtable was attended by a wide range of employers, unions, regulators, and NHS England representatives. The report presents additional recommendations for action to mitigate the DPP challenges and enhance the prescribing pathway for pharmacists:

Key recommendations include encouraging pharmacies that submit placements to the National Recruitment Scheme (Oriel) to work together with ICS workforce leads to assess their readiness to provide a prescribing learning environment.

It was also recommended that organisations publish case studies demonstrating the benefits achieved by GP practices and hospital trusts from supporting community pharmacist trainees.

ICB pharmacy Workforce leads are also asked to leverage their convening power to foster local partnerships and interprofessional working including considering a local “matchmaking” service.

The report also calls on organisations to work collaboratively to help dispel some of the misconceptions related to DPPs to support prescribing and bring primary care closer together.

RPS has also today published a GB-wide set of recommendations calling for DPPs to have protected learning time to undertake the role; to be provided with job descriptions that take account of the supervision and support they provide for trainees; and for there to be consistent expectations of workplace support and qualifications for DPPs across all sectors of practise.

RPS Director for England James Davies said:

“The report published today demonstrates the importance of working collaboratively across employers, education training providers and the NHS to ensure that we can create the prescribers that our patients need for the future. While there is significant work to continue to do by all parties, this helps us come closer to addressing some of the current DPP challenges for community pharmacy.”  

NPA representative Nick Kaye, who chaired the event said:

“Whilst there’s still more to do about access to DPPs, it is positive that senior figures in NHS England, including the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, plus stakeholders from across community pharmacy and beyond are now engaged in seeking solutions.” 

Read the Roundtable Report.

Take a look at the new GB-wide recommendations from RPS.

Find out why and how pharmacist Sukhi Basra became a DPP.

Read more RPS news stories.