The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) has updated and expanded its community pharmacy information standard, to reflect a growing range of services offered by community pharmacies.
Originally developed in 2018, the standards have recently been updated this year to cover services such as:
- Services to quit smoking
- Hypertension testing in the community
- Contraception services
- Hepatitis C testing
- Sore throat support
- Palliative care services.
PRSB said the new guidelines for these services is to ensure that information collected at a community pharmacy can be shared digitally with GP practices, and support them to manage long-term conditions and minor ailments at home.
The original community pharmacy standard included the following services:
- Vaccine administration
- Emergency supply of medicine
- New medicine service
- Medication reviews
- Appliance use reviews
- Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS)
- Discharge from hospital to pharmacy services.
NHS England & NHS Improvement commissioned the PRSB to update its original pharmacy standards. Vaughan Lewis, South East Regional Medical Director of NHS England & NHS Improvement, commented: “Following the success of digital flu vaccination notifications, we welcome these new updates to the PRSB pharmacy standard. Secure, digitised information sharing between systems is an integral part of delivering high quality, connected care in the community and we look forward to seeing the benefits to patients with both long-term conditions and acute episodes of care that can be safely and effectively managed in local pharmacies.”
Professor Claire Anderson, Chair of Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, added: “Pharmacies are a vital part of community care and the standards will support integrated care across systems as pharmacists expand their clinical role. At last, information from discussions with patients and interventions made by pharmacists can be shared with GPs and other care professionals, so everyone involved in their care has a full picture of their health. This will definitely help demonstrate the value that pharmacists bring to a person’s care.”
Earlier in the year, the PRSB launched a new vendor scheme to support integrated care. The ‘Standards Partnership Scheme’ launched to visibly recognise and support vendors that are implementing endorsed record standards, in a bid to help improve and integrate care through interoperability.
It provides a support programme for qualifying organisations, including workshops, briefings, guidance and networking opportunities. PRSB said at the time that joining the scheme helps to send ‘a strong signal’ that the companies involved are helping to drive toward standards and interoperability in the NHS and social care.
In November, NHS Digital and PRSB published new social care standards, to support how information is recorded and shared across health and social care. The five new standards developed hopes to ensure important personal details, such as the need for additional social care support after a person’s hospital stay, will be recorded and shared.
