Where will hospital pharmacy be in 10 years time?

[Shah15]

During a discussion in a seminar this topic came up and the future of pharmacy was discussed. I personally do not know much about hospital pharmacy but I wanted to know about where hospital pharmacy will be in the future?
Is the role of the hospital pharmacist developing, is it going to develop? and if so what changes will be made to it? Will pharmacists have a more active role?

I would like to know other people thoughts on this matter and where you would like to see pharmacy in the next 10 years.

[johnep]

Perhaps consigned to the dustbin of history.
johnep

[Nik]

Is the role of the hospital pharmacist developing, is it going to develop? and if so what changes will be made to it? Will pharmacists have a more active role?

Role of hospital pharmacist has always been developing. 25 years ago clinical pharmacy was virtually unheard of - nowadays the vast majority of hosp pharmacists spend most of their time on wards, providing a "clinical pharmacy" service. Biggest challenge would probably be convincing NHS they have a role in contributing to the billions of efficiency savings required over the next four years.

[crit care]

hospital pharmacy in the future is quite a broad topic and the position of hospital pharmacists in the future could be seen as exciting, providing the NHS don't make too many cuts.

Hospital pharmacy is moving in a direction towards electronic prescribing, one stop dispensing, speedier discharges, general clinical services to patients both in clinics and on the wards, multi-disciplinary team work with other allied health professionals, drug budgets- making savings, looking at making prescribing cost effective.

Pharmacists roles will develop as there is the choice now of working up to consultant pharmacist, and specialising in certain areas (not just being a jack of all trades), this then gives them the option of working on a national level with other centres around the country and standardising practices, improving safety without affecting patient harm, drawing up guidelines both national and local.

[Nik]

Hospital pharmacy is moving in a direction towards electronic prescribing, one stop dispensing, speedier discharges, general clinical services to patients both in clinics and on the wards, multi-disciplinary team work with other allied health professionals, drug budgets- making savings, looking at making prescribing cost effective.

Could argue that most of this is happening right now.

[crit care]

correct, but its not quite yet the norm....well not where i work. They see themselves as a large teaching trust yet seem to be way behind the times....and i guess it should be happening on a grander scale!


maybe i should have said it will become the norm and not just the odd hospital using electronic prescribing etc

[Shah15]

What do you think of genetic testing before being prescribed medications, making prescribing more individualised, will that become a thing of the future? as some drugs are only effective in people with certain genes, in the long run this may be able to cut costs eventhough the initial cost will be high.

[Nik]

Funnily enough I did a presentation on this (pharmacogenomics) at uni a couple of years ago. You're right in that there is an increasing interplay between genes, proteins and drug action. However as to whether the NHS will fund pharmacogenetic testing, I very much doubt. It might be more likely that this kind of testing will be privately contracted out. Of course genetic testing occurs to some extent now eg her2 expression and herception. Oncology will probably be the biggest area which will see this development.

[angel56]

in one of our lectures it says that hospitals are going to turn into "social enterprises".

anyone please explain? how will this effect the quality of heathcare and our roles as pharmacists?