The Society and its Clinical Committee have been engaging stakeholders nationally and locally about how benefits that clinical pharmacology can deliver for UK health systems might be enhanced and shared nationally.
Clinical pharmacology is the only medical specialty focusing on the safe, effective, and economic use of medicines. The Society is clear that it represents a diverse and dynamic discipline with potential to advance and sustain best healthcare. These benefits are achieved in Trusts and hospitals with access to clinical pharmacology skills, but are denied to most Trusts and hospitals because there are only 72 clinical pharmacologists in the whole of the UK currently.
As members will be aware, in November 2014 the Society published
A Prescription for the NHS: Recognising the value of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics . The report was
launched by Lord Robert Winston in the House of Lords and called for an increase in the number of clinical pharmacologists across the four UK nations. The report was accompanied by a YouTube video, and the conclusion generated a lot of media interest and support from partner organizations. The Society has worked hard in the following 12 months to build on this engagement across the NHS.
A new publication,
Clinical Pharmacology: A dynamic medical speciality essential for UK Healthcare, sets out how the diversity of clinical pharmacology means that it is uniquely placed to deliver the key strategic priorities for the NHS. These include: protecting patient safety; improving productivity and efficiency; delivering person-centred care; leading medicines research; promoting access to innovative medicines; ensuring medicines are cost-effective and used to best effect; and training skilled and safe prescribers.
Supporting clinical pharmacology as a medical specialty is a long-term process and will require co-ordination across the entire health system. The contribution of members to this campaign to date has been hugely valuable and I’ve been proud to highlight their achievements in these two publications. I look forward to progressing our activities over the coming months and involving members in this essential campaign.
For further information about the resource and how members can get involved in the campaign, please contact:
Chinara Rustamova
chinara.rustamova@bps.ac.uk
+ 44 (0)20 7239 0179