Draft Pharmacy (Preparation and Dispensing Errors - Hospital and Other Pharmacy Services) Order 2022 Draft Pharmacy (Responsible Pharmacists, Superintendent Pharmacists etc.) Order 2022

Steven Bonnar Excerpts

Monday 6th June 2022 General Committees

[Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)]

I thank the Minister for tabling these SIs, and for laying out the reasoning behind them in such a detailed manner. We will support both motions. To that end, I only have a few comments that I would like to place on the record.

In relation to the first motion, we in the Scottish National party know that good-quality healthcare is the cornerstone of a decent society, and the Scottish Government will always strive to provide that for Scotland and all of our citizens. We know that the risk to patients is increased if pharmacists are not flagging up simple things such as poor labelling, difficult to read issues, or mistakes that someone else has made. Continuous improvements can be made through increasing the reporting of dispensing errors and learning from them. The SNP encourages a learning culture for those involved when errors happen, so that pharmacists can increase their learning from such errors.

Scotland is far ahead of England and Wales in electronic prescribing, which helps prevent prescribing errors. That system also flags up the dangers of—for example—prescribing penicillin to someone who is allergic, using the wrong doses, or bad interactions previously had by patients. I take this opportunity to again highlight the fantastic approach to these matters taken by Mackie Pharmacy in my constituency, which has a phenomenal track record in dispensing best practice. Also with a focus on safety and the aim of reducing harm in healthcare, the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance was established in 2007 by creating a partnership between the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, the Royal Colleges and other professional bodies, the Scottish Consumer Council and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. That is something that the UK Government could probably take on board.

Turning to the second motion, the SNP supports making the best use of the workforce by more fully using the skills and knowledge of community pharmacists. The Scottish Government introduced the Pharmacy First NHS service, backed by £10 million of investment from the Scottish Government, as part of the NHS recovery plan to expand the range of common clinical conditions that can be treated by a community pharmacist, avoiding unnecessary GP and out-of-hours appointments. In Scotland, community pharmacists are playing a fantastic role in ensuring that millions of people have their minor ailment needs addressed quickly without needing to see a GP or go to a hospital. They are a prime example of getting the right care in the right place at the right time.