RPS election manifesto calls for investment in workforce development

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is asking candidates in the upcoming general election to pledge their support for pharmacy.

In its 2019 election manifesto, ‘Pharmacy Matters: our prescription for the nation’s health’, the RPS says that investment in pharmacists’ education and training is needed to meet increasing demand for their services. In particular, it says that the workforce must be equipped with the skills and capacity to deliver new technologies, such as pharmacogenomics.

Looking towards a future relationship with the EU, the manifesto states that science and research funding must be maintained, alongside support for international collaboration. It also reiterates the Society’s ongoing call to scrap prescription charges in England and to provide pharmacists with read/write access to patient records.

Prospective MPs are also urged to “pass long-awaited legislation on inadvertent dispensing errors” that will extend legal protection to hospital pharmacists, among others.

In April 2018, legislation was passed to protect community pharmacists from prosecution in the event of an inadvertent dispensing mistake. But pharmacists working in other settings are still waiting for similar protection.

The Society is asking candidates to sign a pledge, printed on the front page of the manifesto, to “work to support my constituents’ health by ensuring the next government helps everyone access pharmacists’ expertise; invests in pharmacy services and supports the health and care workforce”.