A new “code of conduct, ethics and performance” has been published by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to reflect the “evolving scope of pharmacy practice”.
Published earlier this week, the “revised” code supports pharmacists with “safe and effective practice across all settings” and “reassures the public” that pharmacists are being held to “high professional standards”, it said.
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According to the PSNI, the code was developed following “extensive engagement” with pharmacists, patients, professional bodies and “wider stakeholders” to ensure it is “relevant, accessible and supportive of modern pharmacy practice”.
As the “scope of practice continues to evolve” for pharmacists – including prescribing and the delivery of “advanced services” – they are becoming “increasingly integrated into multidisciplinary teams and entrusted with greater clinical autonomy”, the regulator said.
“Foster public trust”
With this “expanded role” comes a “continued responsibility to meet the evolving expectations of patients, colleagues, and the wider health and care system”, it added.
The standards set out in the new code provide a “framework to help pharmacists uphold professionalism, act with integrity and foster public trust”, it said.
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The PSNI highlighted that key features of the new code include:
- “Clear articulation” of professional standards for pharmacists at all career stages
- Guidance designed to be “accessible to both professionals and the public”
- Emphasis on safe, ethical and “person-centred care”
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PSNI president Dr Geraldine O’Hare stressed that the code is “central” to the regulator’s responsibility to ensure standards are “clear, robust and focused on protecting the public”.
“It underpins trust: the trust that patients place in pharmacists, and the confidence the public can have in the standards that govern professional practice,” she said.
And she added that the code provides an “important foundation” for pharmacists, helping ensure that “as practice changes, public protection and professional standards remain central”.
