A new faculty to support pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in or with care homes has been launched, with an introductory webinar to be held this evening.

The National Care Home Faculty (NCHF) is open to any pharmacist or pharmacy technician with an interest in care home pharmacy and medicines use in care homes – including those working in general practice, primary care networks (PCNs), community pharmacy and academia.

It aims to bring together pharmacy professionals who may often work in small, siloed teams, to standardise and share best practice, as well as offer training, peer support and opportunities for collaboration, particularly with academic research.

Sundus Jawad, the faculty chair, told The Pharmacist that she hoped the faculty could be an advocate for pharmacists working in care home settings, demonstrating the value of the work to commissioners and showing the next generation of pharmacists that it could be 'another interesting career pathway to go down'.

Ms Jawad, who is the lead medicines optimisation care homes pharmacist at Frimley integrated care system, said that the level and type of pharmacy services provided to care homes, varied from place to place, as did the confidence of pharmacy professionals working in those settings.

And while several smaller or local networks of care home pharmacists do exist, she felt there was nothing to bring together all UK registered pharmacy professionals with an interest in the setting.

'We all come from diverse backgrounds professionally, but that means we bring more to the table,' she told The Pharmacist.

'What I'm hoping is that the faculty will bring us all together and we can all support each other and learn from each other,' she said.

Ms Jawad said when she first began working with medicines management in care homes 20 years ago, she did not have much support.

'I was just told: "there are some care homes on our patch, and medicines go in there, and we need to find out what's going on!"' she said.

She found she enjoyed the work, and discovered that there was 'so much more' that pharmacists could do with older patients and medicines management.

'There is still a whole area of work that we have not tapped into, particularly social care. There's so much more we could do with care planning, treatment plans,' Ms Jawad suggested.

'That is the potential that every care home pharmacy professional can strike, they just need the support,' she added.

Eventually, it is hoped that the faculty could support pharmacy professionals towards specific care home pharmacy credentialling, she said.

The faculty was born out of a meeting of around 60 people with an interest in care home pharmacy at the University of Leicester in June last year (pictured).

The group included professor David Wright, of the University of Leicester, and professor David Alldred, of the University of Leeds, who felt that a network was needed to bring together pharmacy professionals across practice and academia with an interest in care home pharmacy.

Currently, the faculty is an affiliate of the Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA), who will be hosting and supporting members.

The inaugural NCHF webinar will take place tonight (Wednesday 12 February) at 8pm. 

It will focus on 'medicines use in care homes and the role of pharmacy professionals'.

Attendees can expect to learn:

  • What the NHSBSA Prescribing in Care Homes annual report says about medicines use in care home
  • What the evidence base for pharmacy teams in care homes is
  • What medicines optimisation in care homes pharmacy professionals do

Speakers will include:

  • Graham Stretch - PCPA president
  • Sundus Jawad - NPCHF chair
  • Kishan Karia - NPCHF vice-chair
  • Heather Smith - Consultant pharmacist: older people
  • Jane Shanahan – Pharmacy technician
  • Alison Marshall – Pharmacy technician

A recording of the webinar will be available after the event.