The additional placement opportunities in community pharmacies, hospitals, and GP practices, in every health board in Wales aim to equip future pharmacists with “the training and skills needed to take on new clinical roles as medicines experts”, Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) announced last week (August 4).

The organisation developed the plan with schools of pharmacy at Cardiff and Swansea universities, and the scheme was subsequently approved by health minister Eluned Morgan.

From the next academic year, Welsh schools of pharmacy will be able to access funding to support students’ supervised placements within their four-year undergraduate programme.

Students will also be able to access funding to cover their travel and accommodation for the placements. 

The funding set aside for the placements “will rise to over £2.7 million per year by April 2025”, HEIW wrote.

Its executive medical director, Professor Pushpinder Mangat, said it was unusual for pharmacy courses to attract additional funding for clinical placements, as “historically [they] have been viewed as science rather than health degrees”.

“These changes bring the training of pharmacists in line with doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals,” he commented.

 

Placements make Welsh pharmacy schools “more attractive” to students

 

The additional investment from the government will allow universities in Wales to meet new standards for initial education and training of pharmacists set by the General Pharmaceutical Council in 2021, HEIW wrote.

Responding to the announcement, Wales's chief pharmaceutical officer Andrew Evans said the extra placements would make undergraduate programmes in Cardiff and Swansea’s schools of pharmacy “even more attractive to potential students”.

“This investment reinforces Wales is a great place to train, work and live for pharmacy professionals,” he said, making clear that the country is at the “forefront of creating new and exciting opportunities for pharmacists to use their clinical skills”.

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Meanwhile, Professor Mangat hailed Ms Morgan’s support of the placements as “great news for current and future pharmacy students in Wales”, as they stand to benefit from “enhanced clinical skills as well as and the ability to independently prescribe medicines after five years of training”.

Contractors wishing to provide placements in their pharmacy should email HEIW at [email protected]. The education body will respond with more detail “in the coming weeks”.

 

Pharmacy teams to benefit too

 

Gareth Hughes – deputy superintendent and Wales clinical lead at Avicenna – believes that existing pharmacy teams also stand to benefit from the placements. 

“Providing clinical placements at community pharmacies in Wales is an excellent opportunity for the sector to demonstrate its step change to a more clinical service-focussed contract,” he told C+D today (August 11).

Read more: Welsh government pumps cash into national pharmacy clinical service

He also hopes to see current independent prescribers using this “exciting development” as a “springboard” to “put themselves forward as designated prescribing practitioners to support future cohorts of independent prescribers”.

As for students, the extra placement days will give them the opportunity “to gain valuable experience”, utilise “a wide range of clinical skills” and “make every contact count”, Mr Hughes explained.