Pharmacists can help health system reform, says expert

The Registrar of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Dr Ambrose McLoughlin, has said pharmacists and pharmacies could be much better used in the efforts to reform the health service.

Speaking in Cork today at the United Drug Seminar at the School of Pharmacy in University College Cork, Dr McLoughlin said pharmacists could be utilised more progressively in the battles against bottlenecks in the health service.

“Pharmacists are a highly valuable asset to our front-line health system, a system that has been under increasing pressure,” said Dr McLoughlin. “These valuable resources need to be used wisely and appropriately.”

The Registrar said that to date pharmacists and pharmacies had not been used as an effective weapon in the battle to get to grips with the health service.

“Pharmacy can play a more comprehensive role in building a quality healthcare system in Ireland today. Pharmacists could play a greater role in obesity issues, in heart and blood management issues, in the administration of medicines, in immunizations and patient referrals.

“In the health service the boundaries between the traditional roles of each health profession are breaking down. The Tánaiste’s announcement on nurse prescribing or the fact that some aspects of care are being shifted from hospital out patient clinics into G.P. surgeries are just two examples.

“Things are changing and the unique skill mix that pharmacists provide is as yet an under utilised resource within our health system.”