The recent launch of the new PSI Strategy saw pharmacy and politics come together to shape the future of regulation and the profession itself, with the Minister for Health stating her commitment to the process. Pat Kelly reports
The PSI Corporate Strategy 2025-2028 was launched recently at PSI headquarters in Dublin, with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill delivering a brief address to the attendees. The Strategy covers the next three years rather than four, which was previously the time-span of PSI strategies. The Society says this reflects the rapidly- changing nature of the profession, and acknowledges that “requires the investment and focus of our people and resources to ensure that we are aligned with the broader health system”.
The Strategy contains three main objectives: To regulate pharmacists to deliver essential and expanded services; to evolve the regulatory approach to drive safe patient outcomes in delivering pharmacy care; and to enhance and align the PSI to achieve its strategic priorities and core responsibilities. In the Strategy, these are broken down into actions and intended outcomes.
Education
Ms Katherine Morrow, PSI Council President, introduced Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and told the packed auditorium that the Society’s focus in the Strategy is on supporting the implementation of national policy initiatives, and the implementation of the recommendations of the Expert Taskforce, and to support the expansion of pharmacists’ roles. “The lifetime of the Strategy will also see the expansion of healthcare programmes at third level,” said Ms Morrow. “This will see a potential doubling of the number of institutions offering pharmacy education in the State and will be a significant step forward in making Ireland more self-sufficient in meeting its pharmacist workforce needs into the future.”
Ms Morrow added: “We recognise that one size does not fit all when it comes to compliance with pharmacy and medicines legislation, and in our Strategy, we are advocating for the introduction of risk-based, outcomes- focused standards against which we can assess pharmacy services.
“… The Council is also keen to consider the Fitness to Practice process that we operate under the Pharmacy Act,”
Ms Morrow told the attendees. “In addition to legislative reform proposals, the area will be examined from an internal process perspective so that it is transparent and consistent and a kinder, person-centered and compassionate approach to its operation.”
Addressing the attendees, Minister Carroll MacNeill said her Department’s vision is aligned with that of the pharmacy profession, including the regulator. She said she supports the expansion of the role of pharmacies and “I’m excited to help and enable that in any way I can, working with you to try and drive that. GPs have an exceptionally important role, but they don’t need to be doing everything that they are doing, and pharmacists can do so much more [than currently]. They can build on the trust that’s already naturally there in the community for pharmacies with their physical presence in every town in Ireland.”
Fees
Minister Carroll MacNeill also touched on the funding that will be required to implement these changes. On the sustainability of the vision for pharmacists, she spoke about “the opportunity to charge a fee, and the expectation that you would charge a fee”. She also spoke about “broader and more diverse funding streams, and I can tell you quite happily that most of the people in Ireland, unless they are under the GMS, which is slightly different, will be quite happy to pay [a small amount] rather than having to go back to their GP. Even the parking and the inconvenience — it is just so much easier [to consult with a pharmacist]. That is an obvious and necessary first step into all of the other things that we want to see pharmacists do.
“We want to see pharmacists working at the absolute top of their training and expertise,” she continued. The Minister also said the success of pharmacist prescribing in other jurisdictions has shown the potential for the kind of services pharmacy can deliver. “There
is a substantial, ongoing collaborative process to develop the clinical protocols, the regulations and rules — this is all work that needs to be done [to deliver
a pharmacist prescribing service],” she said. She also mentioned the need to upskill those who work with pharmacists to best prepare for these changes.
Opportunities
“The expansion of community pharmacy services is a huge opportunity to transform the delivery of healthcare differently,” said the Minister. “… I don’t think pharmacists have been held in the
standing in which I hold them. It has been too easy to be seen as the dispensers
of medication, rather than the expert healthcare professionals that they are. Pharmacists are moving to prescribe, moving to extend prescriptions, moving to deliver a different sort of service that will enhance the ability of pharmacists to work at the top of their expertise, their standing in the community and their standing as healthcare professionals.”
Registrar and Chief Officer at the PSI Ms Joanne Kissane also spoke at the launch, and she also emphasised the historical opportunities that now exist for the pharmacy profession to play a greater role in patient care. “I think it’s fair to say the Minister has acknowledged that we never would have thought when we launched the previous Strategy, the size of the changes that lay ahead,” said Ms Kissane. She also referenced the vital role of pharmacists during the Covid-19 pandemic: “I think it’s fair to say that it shone a light on the profession in a new and very positive way. Much of what Katherine and the Minister have spoken about today in relation to future scope of practice is perhaps a response to, and recognition of, the efforts that pharmacists made, demonstrating their agility, their commitment, and their expertise.”
Trust
Speaking to Irish Pharmacist (IP) at the event, Minister Carroll MacNeill was asked about the consistently high level of trust in pharmacists demonstrated by the communities they serve, and whether she personally shared that trust. The Minister was also asked if she has confidence in pharmacists to deliver the rapid changes occurring in the industry. “I have total confidence in pharmacists [to deliver expanded responsibilities]. This is the vision that we all have for pharmacy — the PSI, the IPU, and the Department of Health — and it is not to deliver this for anyone but the Irish public.
“Pharmacists are looking after the public on a day-to-day basis, and I know they want to deliver this enhanced vision of what pharmacy can do in every town
Regulation | FEATURE in Ireland, and I’m so excited to work with them to deliver and enable that vision,” she told IP. “It is important that where we do make developments and changes, that they do get implemented. For example, I know the public would be delighted to get their prescriptions for free, and they are already delighted to have their prescriptions extended, which has been in place since September. So it’s important that these measures are actually implemented,” she continued.
“If those changes are made and not implemented, that will reduce public confidence, and we don’t want that… personally, as a new Minister, I have total confidence in pharmacists to take those big steps forward on their own behalf, but as I’m sure they would agree, on behalf of the people they serve in every town in Ireland.”
Commitment
Also speaking to IP at the launch, PSI Council member Joan Peppard commented on the Minister’s address at the event. “I was absolutely thrilled that the Minister came here today and showed her commitment to pharmacy by her presence,” said Ms Peppard. “She was very clear in her commitment to
the ongoing development of pharmacy, and I can see from what she said that her vision is even more expansive than what we have laid-out already. I think we have a great opportunity to work with this Minister.”
She was also asked about the strategy covering three years, rather that four. “The strategy very clearly lays-out that it intends to implement the report of the Expert Taskforce, along with all the other stakeholders, but as you correctly identify, this is a rapidly-changing landscape. It’s a very exciting time, and a longer strategy would probably not be able to keep up with the pace of change. [On this basis] The Council, along with the Registrar, decided that a three-year strategy was the way to go.”
The Strategy can be accessed at https://www.psi.ie/information-and-re- sources/corporate-strategy-2025-2028.
