Pharmacy technicians in the GP practice

Delphi
Delphi Online Community Member Posts: 49 Contributor
in Everyday life

Having this forum makes an enormous difference to my stress levels. I appreciate being able to put my thoughts here and hearing back from anyone who wants to chip in.

Pharmacy technicians have a whole list of tasks in a GP practice nowadays. Ours, for example, changes your medication without asking or telling you. When you collect a prescription you just find it is different.

This is nothing in comparison to my friends appointment with a pharmacy technician for dangerously high blood pressure (one reading was over 200 systolic). What happened was helpful (although he had to push for an appointment and it was far from immediate) and I am sure it is exactly what a GP would have done. However, I'm also sure it was beyond the remit for the role.

Earning around a third of a basic GP salary, they would have to do a masters degree to become a pharmacist. Thus, they know a lot but they are neither GPs nor pharmacists.

My friend was prescribed Amlodipine (good) and an ECG and MRI were requested (also good), all without seeing a doctor. This may well be life-saving for my friend. Why then am I concerned? (rhetorical question as I'm going to witter on about it).

Initial diagnosis, prescribing and ordering tests isn't what pharmacy technicians are qualified to do. What happened when the boundary is stretched all the time and something goes very badly wrong?

I've done some searching and it seems that contrary to pharmacy regulations the Government added something called Patient Group Directions (PGD). This allows a person who is not a fully qualified pharmacist nor a GP to "administer a medicine directly to a group of patients with an identified clinical condition. PGDs are not a form of prescribing."

It sounds like a form of prescribing to me! This is clearly standards creep. Massive standards creep. A nurse who can prescribe has to do a lot of extra training to do so. Do pharmacy technicians do the same additional training?

If hypertension diagnosis and 'administering' for it is a PGD at my friend's GP practice that would explain the Amlodipine. But what about the mri and ECG? That suggests potential cardiac concerns (which makes complete sense). The sooner these are done the safer but shouldn't it have been a doctor and not a pharmacy technician making the decisions?

Administering was government decided skills creep for technicians. That means requesting diagnostic imaging is creep on creep!

[Note, it isn't the same in Northern Ireland.]

https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacies/standards-and-guidance-registered-pharmacies/legislation-pharmacy-supervision-faqs

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposal-for-the-use-of-patient-group-directions-by-pharmacy-technicians/outcome/proposal-to-enable-pharmacy-technicians-to-supply-and-administer-medicines-using-patient-group-directions-consultation-response

@rosie _Scope and @Schildpad I've added you here (I don't know if doing this works) as you made comments when I wrote about the hypertension problem in the first place🤗

Comments

  • Rosie_Scope
    Rosie_Scope Posts: 8,128 Scope Online Community Coordinator

    Hi @Delphi, glad to hear your friend has got somewhere with treatment and investigations, even if it wasn't quite what you expected.

    My GP surgery sounds similar - you are only very rarely invited to see a GP. Most problems are filtered out to advanced nurses or pharmacists if they feel it can be handled by them. Most of them can prescribe and refer you on to further services.

    Do you think you could outline your concerns to the surgery like you've done here and see what they say?

    I hope your friend gets what they need soon and things settle down for them.

  • Delphi
    Delphi Online Community Member Posts: 49 Contributor
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1100377#Comment_1100377

    My friend lives a very long way in a different NHS area so I can't raise concerns with that GP practice.

    Although we all have these experiences now the level of qualification the staff have for these patient facing roles doesn't fill me with confidence. Pharmacists and nurses have extensive training requiring degree or masters level qualifications. This used to be the minimum level of training for many of the jobs others are now doing.

    Healthcare assistants aim for level 2,3 or sometimes 4 NVQs. Pharmacy technicians have to do two years of work-based training.

    People doing these jobs are paid a fraction of those with the qualifications that used to be required for the tasks they undertake. Dedicated though they are the whole thing has become very concerning. After all health is in their hands.

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