The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched a partnership with the charity Marie Curie to develop professional standards in end of life care for community pharmacy.
Available for pharmacy teams across the UK, the standards will provide a free, evidence-based framework to help community pharmacies self-assess and continuously improve their end of life and bereavement care for patients and carers.
They will enable community pharmacy teams to work together to develop their own practice.
RPS is setting up a professional standard steering group which will have community pharmacy experts, experts within the field of palliative and end of life care, lay members, and healthcare professionals who interact with community pharmacy.
Elen Jones, director lead for palliative care work at RPS, said: “RPS has a long-term commitment, striving to ensure that people living with life-limiting conditions who are approaching the end of life have timely access to medicines and clinical support from a skilled pharmacy team.
“The development of these standards, in partnership with Marie Curie, is a crucial step to support community pharmacy teams to undertake simple quality improvement measures and build upon the care they already provide to this group of patients and carers.”
Dr Sarah Holmes, Marie Curie UK Medical Director and Palliative Care Consultant, said: “The new Daffodil Standards will play a key role in excellent end of life care and ensure that busy community pharmacists and the pharmacy team have the support they need to continually build upon and improve the quality of care they provide to people at the end of life and those important to them.
“We look forward to this collaboration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and to supporting the implementation of these Standards in pharmacies across the UK once produced.”
