Pharmacists 'should have access to better technology'
Thursday 3rd December 2009
People with pharmacy jobs should have access to better technology, an expert has said.
In a piece written for the BBC, policy director of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) David Pruce suggested that those in the profession have been taking on an increasing number of responsibilities and they need help to cope.
He suggested that some pharmacies now offer screening services, such as cholesterol monitoring and provide help for patients on issues including smoking cessation.
This is on top of rising dispensing volumes, Mr Pruce noted.
He added that giving out medication is a "very manual task", which is "crying out" for some form of automation.
The expert said: "An electronic prescription could be automatically transferred from the GP directly into the pharmacist's computer like e-mail and could be used to automatically generate a label."
A professional body for pharmacists and pharmacy techicians, the RPS is also a regulatory body.
Written by Mathew Horton
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