Pharmacists can 'learn a lesson' from vets over AMR, says DH
Pharmacy should “learn from” the veterinary sector to reduce antimicrobial resistance (AMR), while pharmacy technicians will receive “role-specific training” on the issue, the government has said.
Pharmacy has “lessons to be learned in reducing antimicrobial use” from the veterinary sector, the government has said.
The comment was made in a policy paper published this week (May 8) by the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) and other departments on the government’s plans to confront antimicrobial resistance (AMR) between 2024 and 2029.
The document said that lessons could be learned from other sectors “when implementing services that allow community pharmacists (the private sector) to supply antibiotics to humans”.
“For example,” it said, “there is an opportunity to learn from the collaborative, voluntary approach taken to improve antimicrobial use in the veterinary sector”.
It added that “prescribing and supply of antimicrobials for humans is increasingly undertaken in the UK by health professionals other than doctors”.
“Continuing to monitor and evaluate the impact” of the Pharmacy First service on AMR “is critically important”, it said.
“Specific” AMR training for pharmacy technicians
The policy paper also revealed that pharmacy technicians are set to receive “role-specific training” to reduce AMR.
The training “will be critical to empowering all staff groups, including physician assistants and pharmacy technicians”, the government said.
It will empower them to “implement infection prevention control (IPC) and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) principles according to their specific roles and responsibilities,” the paper added.
The DH told C+D today (May 10) that it is not within its remit to produce role-specific training for pharmacy technicians but that it “will further embed, and will require, the completion of appropriate IPC and AMS training for all health and social care workers and students”.
Read more: Pharmacy First: Sector must prove it can ‘manage’ antimicrobial stewardship
It added that the training “will support implementation of best practice for IPC and AMS in their setting and, for specialist posts, to provide career pathways to promote skills retention and succession planning”.
It remains unclear what the training will entail, whether it will be compulsory and when it will be offered.
Pharmacy First “not an antibiotic service”
In February, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) announced that it had won a multimillion-pound contract to “generate evidence” on the new Pharmacy First service, including its “implications for antibiotic use and AMR”.
Meanwhile in January, NHSE’s national clinical lead for AMR diagnostics Dr Jane Freeman said that pharmacies could start offering infection diagnostics through pathways “like the Pharmacy First scheme”.
And in November, contractors told C+D that they “can’t see a risk” of the new Pharmacy First service increasing AMR amid the news that this will be “closely monitored”.
The previous month, NHSE director for pharmacy Ali Sparke revealed that NHSE had agreed it would “commission a piece of evaluation to look at the implications” of Pharmacy First for AMR.
“We need to be able to demonstrate that community pharmacy is as adept as other parts of the NHS in managing antimicrobial stewardship,” he said, adding that Pharmacy First is “not an antibiotic service”.
