The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has published a report containing 11 recommendations for developing the role of consultant pharmacists in the country.

Insisting there was "a recognised need for increased clinical pharmacy and medicines-focused leadership across the health and social care sector,” Northern Ireland’s chief pharmaceutical officer Cathy Harrison said consultant pharmacists “make a significant impact to medicines optimisation and clinical governance, providing a vital link between clinical practice and service development by generating and disseminating evidence to drive improvements in care.”

The report follows on from the Department’s pharmacy workforce review which was published three years ago and laid out the health and social care workforce’s needs over a 10-year period. One of its recommendations was to develop the role of the consultant pharmacist “to ensure on-going provision of clinical leadership across all pharmacy sectors in Northern Ireland.”

The report calls for;

• the continued development of consultant pharmacist posts across Northern Ireland which will be based in secondary care initially but will have system-wide influence and impact.
• the development of the roles to primarily take place in clinical areas where the burden of medicines use is high.
• consultant pharmacists to create and work as a network of expert practitioners with formal links to the chief pharmaceutical officer and other pharmacy leaders.
• the creation of communities of practice, led by consultant pharmacists, to support pharmacists in advancing their professional practice across all sectors.
• a regionally agreed work plan for consultant pharmacists that links to the strategic development of medicines optimisation and pharmaceutical care, signed off by the Pharmacy Leaders Forum.
• Northern Ireland to use the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s consultant pharmacist post-approval and credentialing systems.
• all future consultant pharmacist posts to be approved by the RPS and for pharmacists applying for these posts to meet the criteria in the employee specification including those relating to credentialing.
• The Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development (NICPLD) to further develop an education and training pathway to support the development of advanced practice pharmacists to carry out consultant pharmacist roles.
• NICPLD to support pharmacists to carry out mentoring and other roles as part of the credentialing process and develop leadership training for middle grade/senior pharmacists to support succession planning for senior roles.
• talks to be held with the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland om ways to identify pharmacists who have completed the credentialing process successfully.
• consultant pharmacists to be assisted in progressing their research and service development skills with the support of relevant organisations, including the Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre, universities and Northern Ireland Clinical Research Networks.

The DH said there are nine consultant pharmacist posts in Northern Ireland and insisted adopting the RPS’s model for consultant pharmacist job evaluation and credentialing “will contribute to a robust governance framework for these roles in the country."