The Scottish National Party (SNP) has pledged to maintain the momentum behind its government’s 10-year vision for pharmacy.

The Scottish government’s 2013 vision document - which included plans for all pharmacists to become independent prescribers and for patients to register with a named pharmacist – was still the “right strategy” for the country, said the SNP’s health minister Shona Robison.

The SNP was “confident” it was “on track” to achieve the government’s goal of training all pharmacists as independent prescribers by 2023, said Ms Robison. “When I met with the profession recently, they were very optimistic and felt the fact that the target was there was encouraging people,” she told C+D in an exclusive interview earlier this month (April 1). 

The SNP did not refer to community pharmacy in its 2015 manifesto - published after C+D’s interview - but Ms Robison said the party wanted to support the sector. Community pharmacists were a “very excited, motivated bunch of professionals who want to really get on and do more”, she said.
 

'A critical role' 

Scottish pharmacists should vote for the SNP because it had a “coherent vision” for the sector in the form of the government’s existing strategy, and it wanted pharmacists to play a “critical role within the wider health team”, she stressed.

The government’s 2013 vision set out plans for pharmacists to work alongside GPs to manage common clinical conditions and Ms Robison said there were “some really good discussions going on at an advanced level” between the two professions about how this could happen.

“I know the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is very keen to help pharmacists work to the top of their skill level [and] make sure they can do more of that kind of work,” she said.

The SNP wanted to “accelerate” this agenda and provide pharmacists with a larger role within an integrated health and social care service, she said. The government was setting up joint health boards to bring together NHS and local government organisations, and pharmacy would be “a voice around the table”, Ms Robison said.

Prescription charges were abolished in Scotland in 2011 and Ms Robison added that maintaining the offer of free prescriptions was one of the party’s “key offerings”.

Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) pharmacy operations manager Matt Barclay said contractors were keen to deliver on “many aspects” of the vision: “CPS is happy with the focus on how the pharmacy community can engage with patients.”

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