RPS signs international agreements to share best pharmacy practice

UK professional pharmacy body partners with equivalent associations in Japan and Iceland with the aim of improving patient care and pharmacy practice.

RPS partners with JPA in Japan and the Pharmaceutical Society of Iceland to improve patient care and pharmacy practice

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has signed separate partnership agreements with the Japanese and Icelandic pharmacy associations pledging to work together to share best practice on patient care and approaches to professional workforce development.

The agreements will see the RPS work individually with the Japan Pharmaceutical Association (JPA) and The Pharmaceutical Society of Iceland to improve patient services through medicines and pharmaceutical public health and further develop the pharmacy workforce, according to the RPS.

The British and Japanese organisations will compare policies between the two nations and share professional development frameworks to “enhance pharmacy workforce development”.

The partnership with Iceland will include “joint working on Foundation training (through RPS-accredited foundation schools); professional development and recognition programmes through RPS Faculty membership and assessment; sharing of best practice around new models of care; and prescribing and frameworks, through the review of the prescribing framework (led by RPS in the UK)”.

The agreements were signed during an RPS reception at the FIP World Congress 2015 in Dusseldorf, Germany on 30 September 2015.

Ash Soni, RPS president, said the agreements were “a significant step in demonstrating that international cooperation is both possible and desirable; our respective pharmaceutical workforces both stand to gain considerably through sharing of expertise and tackling common challenges with care delivery and workforce development. It is an outstanding example of joint leadership further uniting both national associations”.

Nobuo Yamamoto, JPA president, said: “I believe we have a common aim of pharmacists concerning population health, although there are some differences in pharmaceutical practices and policies between both countries. In taking this opportunity, we would like to endeavour to improve professional roles and skills of pharmacists through mutual cooperation, moving beyond the differences in practices and policies and learning from our commonalities and opportunities for development”.

Lóa María Magnúsdóttir, president of the Icelandic association, said the aim was to “unite both national associations with a common purpose”.

At the reception, a further memorandum of understanding was signed by the University of Iceland and the Landspitali National University Hospital of Iceland with the RPS for the Society to provide a programme of foundation training support and advanced practice training, linked to the RPS Faculty professional recognition.

Last updated
Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, October 2015, Vol 295, No 7882;295(7882):DOI:10.1211/PJ.2015.20069513

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