All Party Pharmacy Group inquiry into pharmacy,response to section 8 on education from the Council of University Heads of Pharmacy (CUHOP).

8. Pharmacy education and development

8a. Are all pharmacy degree courses producing pharmacists who can deliver a new range of services.

A. Partially. The schools of pharmacy are good at providing graduates who have good basic knowledge in science, therapeutics and the legal and ethical requirements for practice. As the 'scientist in the healthcare team' they currently make an important contribution to patient care. However, the lack of clinical placements and patient contact in the 4 year MPharm course limits their ability to gain the professional skills essential for their developing role as clinical practitioners. It is not certain that they will be able to effectively develop these skills within the preregistration training year as currently constituted.

8b. What changes need to be made in a pharmacy degree course to ensure that new pharmacists can meet the requirements of the NHS.

A. The development of more patient skills in a clinical setting during the course of their studies would help develop the skills and competencies necessary to meet the enhanced roles envisaged within the NHS. This could be achieved by funding parts of the MPharm degree at HEFCE band A, or with appropriate funding integrating the preregistration year into a 5-year MPharm programme in a similar model to other healthcare professional groups.

8c. Is the current state of pharmacy practice in primary and secondary care likely to be attractive to today's pharmacy graduates? If not, what needs to change?

A. The developing role of pharmacists in primary and secondary care will prove very attractive to current pharmacy graduates. Roles are now on offer (consultant pharmacists, specialist pharmacists) that might not have been considered possible a decade ago. The exciting development of new activities such as supplementary and independent prescribing will prove highly attractive to the best and brightest of our MPharm graduates.

8d What are the professional expectations of today's pharmacy students.

A. They expect to become key members of the healthcare team in primary and secondary care, taking forward patient care. Most students appreciate the need for continual professional development in order to achieve advanced status, moving through their career from recently qualified pharmacist status through to consultant or specialist pharmacist. A small number of graduates may still chose to work away from practice in other areas such as the pharmaceutical industry and academia.

8e. Is continuing professional development in pharmacy adequate to ensure that pharmacists can take on a broad range of roles and responsibilities? How does CPD need to change?

A. CPD is developing within the profession and great strides have been made already. The schools of pharmacy are keen to engage in CPD activity and are now developing postgraduate programmes to meet the changing needs of pharmacists. A partnership between the NHS, RPSGB and the schools to provide the CPD support for pharmacists would be powerful in driving forward the contribution of pharmacists to the NHS.

One additional issue not covered by the above is the popularity of pharmacy undergraduate courses leading to a rapid expansion of the numbers of pharmacy students within the UK. Not only are existing courses increasing their numbers in many universities but new schools of pharmacy are opening up every year. Pharmacy and optometry are the only two healthcare professions with unregulated numbers entering their undergraduate degree programmes. This large increase in pharmacy graduates is unlikely to be matched by an equivalent increase in preregistration training year places, so it is likely that significant numbers of graduates will emerge from schools of pharmacy in the coming years unable to gain the professional training required to become a registered pharmacist. In addition, the rapid growth in registered pharmacists could lead to significant unemployment within the profession. These factors would be predicted to lead to a decline in the popularity of pharmacy courses and a 'bursting of the undergraduate bubble', taking the educators of the profession into unchartered and dangerous territory. A degree of stability in undergraduate numbers across the UK would be welcome by all those wishing to plan and invest in the future of pharmacy education.