'Somewhat behind': NHSE reveals plans to add patient safety to pharmacy CPD
NHS England (NHSE) has revealed plans to add extra patient safety training to pharmacy continued professional development (CPD) requirements.
Additional pharmacy CPD “requirements” around patient safety are being mulled over by NHSE, a new “primary care patient safety strategy” yesterday (September 26) revealed.
The strategy documents laid out “the national and local commitments to improve patient safety in primary care”.
Among the “commitments” are plans to “review opportunities to add patient safety training to the CPD requirements for community pharmacy…via the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)”.
“Local commitments” also include plans for pharmacies to “start to identify two or more lay patient safety partners (PSPs)…and enable them to complete the free online NHS patient safety syllabus training levels one and two”, as well as patient safety leads.
The document stressed that the strategy “draws together best practice” and “is not a contractual requirement on primary care providers or integrated care boards (ICBs)”.
“Somewhat behind general practice”
NHSE added that it did not expect the commitments to be put into practice immediately.
“We recognise implementation of this framework across primary care will take time, particularly in community pharmacy, optometry and dental services,” it said.
It added that the three sectors “are somewhat behind general practice in terms of their involvement of patients and lay people in their safety governance systems”.
Meanwhile, a pharmacist working at Asda told C+D in June that the supermarket’s new scheme for working hours risks being “a very serious patient safety and colleague safety issue”.
And in April 2022, a Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (CPPSG) survey revealed that having more time and “improved staffing levels” would encourage pharmacy teams to report more patient safety incidents.
