Key Summary
- John Swinney and Maree Todd visited a community pharmacy in the Scottish Highlands.
- They praised pharmacy teams and discussed access, workforce and future services.
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society highlighted key priorities to improve pharmacy support and care.
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney and minister for Drug and Alcohol Policy Maree Todd visited a community pharmacy in Alness in the Scottish Highlands on Friday (10).
They were accompanied by Catriona Sinclair, Scottish Pharmacy Board Member.
The two ministers spoke to the Community Pharmacy Team at Alness, including pharmacy owner.
Todd, who is a pharmacist herself, lauded the services rendered by community pharmacies, and queried the pharmacy teams about access to pharmacy and workforce development.
She also explained how the new accreditation system developed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) will benefit pharmacists with enhanced service delivery.
Prior to the Scottish Parliamentary Election on 7 May, the RPS has raised four issues for the new Scottish Government needs to fulfill for pharmacists.
They include providing pharmacists in all care settings access to integrated digital patient record, improving national workforce planning for pharmacy, enabling more sustainable approach to medicines and ensuring time for learning and development for all pharmacists for workforce development are the four calls.
“Today was a good opportunity to advocate on behalf of pharmacists and patients and demonstrate to the first minister the fantastic work which pharmacists are engaged in within communities across Scotland, but particularly in remote and rural areas such as across the Scottish Highlands,” Catriona said.
“It was encouraging to hear the First Minister and the Minister for Drug and Alcohol Policy speak so highly of community pharmacy teams,” she added.
