The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) announced today it has been commissioned by NHS England to develop guidance that helps community and hospital pharmacy teams across Great Britain to reduce the impact of pharmacy services, pharmaceutical care and medicines on the environment.
The Greener Pharmacy Guidance will enable pharmacy teams to self-assess their impact against the standards, benchmark and improve through evidence-based activities and actions.
The full scheme is expected to launch in Spring 2024, following a pilot and consultation period. You can read more here.
I would rather see ths RPS put their own house in order first before issuing guidance to the pharmacy profession.
The RPS is hardly transparent, let alone green!
The NHS IIF in England has had a dangerous impact on patients lives. The financial incentive to blanket switch all patients to a DPI is all very well if the patient has been involved in the decision and has had their inhaler technique for the new device checked. Many patients will be able to use a DPI, but not all. We would only know this if we checked their technique rather than blanket switching, usually by SMS or letter and in one case simply a webpage on the practice website
https://www.theridgemedicalpractice.nhs.uk/inhaler-swaps/
The carbon footprint of an A&E admission is 125kg PER NIGHT when a patient has an asthma attack because they can't use their DPI. If they die, the carbon footprint of a funeral is over 250kg.
We know that good asthma care will make a bigger impact on inhaler carbon footprint than these switches/swaps.
If we switch a patient to a DPI, that will certainly benefit the planet.
If we engage with the patient, review their asthma and with them on board change to a DPI or even stay on an MDI, that will benefit BOTH the planet and the patient.
Blanket switches are not patient centred and put the planet before the patient.
Good asthma care, is the harder road to take but benefits both patient and the planet, a WIN WIN
#NoHarmNoWaste
Hi Garry
I'd be really interested in the evidence relating to the impact of IIF on patient lives - do you have a reference? My experience and understanding of the IIF is very much an individual, person-centred approach. I absolutely agree that the well / well-controlled patient is the most sustainable and this applies to any condition not just asthma. Prevention and patient empowerment are the first two principles of sustainable healthcare. Greener Practice have produced an asthma toolkit and a range of resources which very much focus on a person centred approach to good quality asthma care, which you can find here.
https://www.greenerpractice.co.uk/high-quality-and-low-carbon-asthma-ca…
You can also find lots of examples of person-centred inhaler QI projects in our resources section.
The RPS guidance has just been announced, so we don't know the details yet. Personally, I hope that this will be a great opportunity to engage and inspire the profession as a whole. I assume and hope that the remit will be much wider than just inhalers. I have read that there will be an initial review of the evidence which I think will be incredibly useful in developing our knowledge and understanding of this emerging area of practice, with which we can move forward together as a profession.
Nuala
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