The two organisations recognise that there is a need to “build on” the ways of working adopted by local systems during the pandemic to better meet patients’ needs, the RPS said in a statement yesterday (April 20).

For this reason, they are seeking views from pharmacy teams across primary, secondary, social and community care to help shape up their vision of how pharmacy practice in England should evolve.

The consultation is expected to be launched in either August or September, while the RPS and the King’s Fund anticipate they will release their vision in December, an RPS spokesperson told C+D today (April 21).

Vision reflects “new ways of working in multidisciplinary teams”

The vision will explore what role pharmacy teams can play when it comes to:

• helping to improve patient outcomes through personalised care
• reducing health inequalities
• developing a “workforce of the future”
• harnessing new innovation and technology to improve treatments.

Read more: RPS Scotland wants all patient-facing pharmacists to prescribe by 2030

RPS English Pharmacy Board chair Thorrun Govind said the vision for pharmacy practice will “build on the extraordinary work of pharmacy teams during the pandemic and reflect the new ways of working in multidisciplinary teams across systems to improve patient care”.

Meanwhile, chief executive of the King’s Fund Richard Murray added that “rising inequalities” and “the difficult recovery from the pandemic” have emphasised the importance of providing “better, more joined-up and convenient services to patients and the public”.

 “In this context, the pharmacy profession has a great opportunity to improve health and health services as part of a wider move to more integrated care and this vision aims to ensure this opportunity becomes a reality,” he added.

Last month, the King’s Fund published a report on roles in primary care networks (PCNs) , which revealed the key issues some pharmacists have flagged with their PCN-working set up.