Fiona Jones, National Pharmacy Board campaign pledge

I would like to see all pharmacists accepted as clinicians, therefore my vision for the next three years will be to support the development of a clinical-based service contract for community pharmacy, where they can extend their knowledge and capitalise on providing long-term chronic conditions for better patient outcomes and, of course, increased job satisfaction.

This should be managed by the development of a strong career pathway through from integrated preregistration, foundation to consultant pharmacist positions.

The overarching education and development pathway should provide the opportunity for independent prescribing (IP) with adequate mentoring and support from GPs, senior IP pharmacists and the wider multidisciplinary team.

Having been part of the stakeholder group for the Prescribing Competency Framework, I would like to this to become essential in the development of new prescribers and for continuing professional development as pharmacists extend their scope of practice into new and innovative roles.

As an independent prescriber myself for over 11 years, I can share this experience with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) board and can support the development and extension of this role into the community, as well as continue the development of practice pharmacist independent prescribers to work to an advanced level.

It is an exciting time for pharmacy and the RPS Welsh Pharmacy Board have achieved some great advances by the integration of pharmacists into GP clusters and NHS 111, plus the Choose Pharmacy IT platform will provide the stepping stone needed for shared access to the GP record.

During the past three years, I have made contributions to the annual Welsh Medicines Safety Conference, met with local Assembly members in both community pharmacy and GP surgeries, informing them of the different yet complementary roles and how the future safety of patients can be improved with better integrated working, shared access to the GP record and more clinical services for community pharmacy.

I have contributed to the RPS consultations with the Welsh government on the integration of social care, changes to cannabis legislation, General Pharmaceutical Council standards and helped support the RPS team with policy documents by providing examples of case studies and good practice. e.g. ‘Improving medicines use for care home residents’, ‘Improving care for people with long-term conditions’ and reducing the prescribing of antipsychotics in dementia patients.

With your vote I will actively work on the recognition for pharmacy that we truly deserve!

Fiona Jones, Wales