PATIENTS around the globe deserve access to pharmacists working to their full scope of practice, International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Andre Bedat Award winner, Professor Martin Schulz, believes.
Addressing the FIP Virtual 2020 conference last night the Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists Chair, highlighted the evidence supporting pharmacist-led interventions in improving outcomes to patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).
Schulz outlined a series of studies and reviews of pharmacist-led interventions and prescribing that had shown evidence of significant benefits including improved control of CVD risk factors, systolic blood pressure, haemoglobin HbA1c and LDL cholesterol.
He highlighted a trial of guidelines to support pharmacists in referring patients who had undergone blood pressure monitoring in-pharmacy to their GPs, had found 16% of patients with no history of hypertension were referred "with urgency to their physician because of uncontrolled blood pressure", while 55% of patients with diagnosed hypertension were found to have poorly controlled blood pressure, with pharmacists being able to provide support to improve healthcare outcomes in conjunction with the patients' doctor.
"Primary healthcare pharmacists' scope of practice and prescribing is presently limited to certain jurisdictions," he said.
"As such full scope of pharmacy services is almost entirely unavailable to patients.
"Yes more research needs to be done alongside the implementation of local guidelines and practice standards for pharmacists, however, patients around the world deserve to receive the full scope of pharmacist practice.
"And [the] lack of CVD risk control, [the] lack of access to prescribed medications and to laboratory testing [for pharmacists] are major obstacles to this."
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 15 Sep 20
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 15 Sep 20
