Prescribers must get the support they need to train, supervise and support trainees as designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has urged.
This comes as the RPS and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have together published a roundtable report discussing the barriers and solutions to providing prescribing training for pre-registration pharmacists.
In a position statement, the RPS said that clearly defining the role of the DPP was ‘essential’ to ensure enough time was allocated to realistically undertake the role.
And it stressed that those who undertake the DPP role 'require protected learning time to support their own development, both as a practicing prescriber (self) but also within the role of DPP for prescribers in training (others)'.
Clinical supervision for prescribers is also ‘essential throughout the prescribing practice continuum’, it added.
It also called for employers and NHS education organisations to work together to remove barriers to prescribing training, as changes to pharmacist training will require all foundation year trainees to undertake a prescribing placement from 2025.
It comes as concerns have been raised around a lack of DPPs, particularly within community pharmacy.
In a joint report published today, the RPS and the NPA highlighted challenges to the prescribing potential of community pharmacy, including delays to the NHS pathfinder programme and IT challenges like access to necessary systems and slow internet speeds.
Last year, NHS England (NHSE) announced £12m in funding for an independent prescribing pathfinder programme, to explore how independent prescribing could be used in community pharmacy.
But James Davies, director of the RPS in England, told The Pharmacist at the time that the timelines set out for the project were ‘tight’, ‘placing a huge ask on pharmacy teams and ICBs to get things working quickly’.
The RPS and NPA report, published today, also highlighted the need for pharmacist prescribers to have opportunities to use their skills, suggesting that this ‘would help many of the existing prescribers be confident to act as DPPs’.
The organisations also called for community pharmacy service specifications to be clear about what activities a prescribing trainee could undertake under appropriate supervision – such as taking blood pressure readings – so that these activities could count towards a trainee’s required hours of clinical practice.
And they encouraged community pharmacies to work with integrated care boards (ICBs) to find local DPPs, describing ICBs as ‘central to delivering’ DPP matchmaking.
The Company Chemists' Association (CCA) has previously called for NHSE to provide a full list of organisations with available DPPs, suggesting that without such a list outlining where to source DPPs, community pharmacy businesses could be ‘forced to offer fewer foundation placements than they would like to and have previously provided’.
The RPS/NPA report noted that at a national level ‘there are currently more placements offered in the scheme than there are students seeking a foundation training place’.
And it called for current cohorts of 4th year students and foundation trainees to also be supported to become prescribers after their registration.
The RPS/NPA report was based on a roundtable discussion with representatives from community pharmacy, as well as from NHSE and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
NPA chair Nick Kaye said it was positive that 'senior figures in NHS England, including the chief pharmaceutical officer, plus stakeholders from across community pharmacy and beyond' were 'now engaged in seeking solutions'.
But he warned that there was 'still more to do about access to DPPs'.
Mr Davies from the RPS, said: 'The report published today demonstrates the importance of working collaboratively across employers, education training providers and the NHS to ensure that we can create the prescribers that our patients need for the future.
'While there is significant work to continue to do by all parties, this helps us come closer to addressing some of the current DPP challenges for community pharmacy.'
A parliamentary committee report published in May identified the need to ensure those graduating as independent prescribers from 2026 are ‘given protected learning time, adequate supervision, career development opportunities and that there are commissioned services available so they regularly make use of their IP qualification’.
And it said ‘greater planning and forward thinking continues to be needed around the full pharmacy workforce’ and that this must account for the ‘changing roles’ in the community as well as the need for ICBs to develop ‘one pharmacy workforce’ to work across settings.
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