The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has said it should represent both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to ‘achieve a more unified approach to pharmacy leadership’.

In its submission to the Independent Commission on Pharmacy Professional Leadership, the RPS said a single leadership body for both professions would ‘amplify pharmacy’s collective professional voice to employers, other professions, and governments, as well as providing a common approach and infrastructure for education and professional development’.

It argued the move would be important in the face of a rapidly changing sector, which it said will see an increase in clinical responsibilities and technology ‘revolutionising’ the delivery of pharmaceutical care. It also predicted an ‘unrecognisable’ healthcare landscape ‘within a generation’.

Under the proposals, each profession would be represented ‘within professional faculties that capitalise on the strengths of each discipline whilst retaining distinct professional voices’, it stressed.

A single leadership body would also lead to ‘inter-professional cohesion’ and would  ‘ultimately achieve parity in opportunity, as well as improving pharmacy practice and patient care’, it suggested.

Paul Bennett, the chief executive of the RPS, said many members ‘ work with pharmacy technicians every day and know just how essential they are to their role and to patient care’.

He added: ‘We feel the same at RPS and it makes perfect sense to evolve into an organisation where both professions can advance their scope of practice, working in alignment as part of the wider multi-professional team.’

Pharmacy technicians in the UK are already represented by the Association of Pharmacy Technicians, which described the submission by the RPS as ‘surprising’.

Calls for changes to upskilling and regulation

As part of its vision for the profession, the RPS also called for changes to regulation and revalidation, including for the GPhC to formally delegate responsibility for post-registration training and credentialing assessments to the RPS.

It said that this would enable pharmacy professionals to ‘confidently deploy their professional judgment without the perceived fear of potential fitness to practise proceedings’.

The GPhC has previously said that it ‘will move away from an approach that can, at times, be confrontational and slow, and can often have an unintended adverse impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the people involved’.

Instead, the regulator said it was planning to ‘take quick action to protect patients when we need to, while at the same time promoting a culture of learning and reflection that helps pharmacy professionals to remain practising when this is appropriate.’

In its proposals, the RPS also said that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians should have to revalidate against their highest level of credentialled practice, rather than against the minimum baseline standards for the profession.

Mr Bennett said: ‘The ‘one size fits all’ approach to revalidation needs to change.

‘We want to see you progress in your career and believe financial reward from employers and organisations must be explicitly linked to your level of credentialled practice, so pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are rewarded accordingly.’

He said that the changes would ‘give professionals a clearly mapped career path’.

‘More than medicines experts’

Setting out its vision for post-registration training, the RPS said that pharmacy’s future role must be ‘centred around the unique contribution pharmacy professionals make to patient care’, which it argued was ‘their expertise in medicines’.

However, it also argued that ‘pharmacists and pharmacy technicians at all levels of practice will need to be more than medicines experts’, as they will also need to be ‘confident and competent leaders, educators, and researchers’.

‘This will break down the historic tendency of specialising into a singular professional silo of clinical practice, leadership, education, or research,’ it added.

The RPS acknowledged that the proposals are a ‘a significant evolution of the current RPS’ that would require a consultation with its members.

However, it added: ‘We believe the vision described in this statement delivers our current Charter objectives of advancing knowledge and education in pharmacy, promoting and protecting the health of the public, and developing the science and practice of pharmacy.’