The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) has supported the National Community Pharmacy Advisory Group project team of the District Health Boards of NZ (DHBNZ) to prepare a National Framework for Pharmacist Services.

After two rounds of stakeholder consultation DHBNZ has now finalised these services and the framework was launched in recently. There are 5new services for which service specifications have been developed.  They are:

Information services:

1.  Health Education to patients

2.  Medicines and Clinical Information Support to practitioners – this includes pharmacist facilitation roles

Medication review services:

3.  Medicines Use Review and Adherence Support (MUR), a four part review assessing patients' use, understanding and adherence to their medication regimens. This service has been aligned with the Pharmacy Council competence standards and titles.

4.  Medicines Therapy Assessment (MTA), a comprehensive clinical review of an individual patient's medication as part of a multidisciplinary team.  This includes a range of pharmacist rest home/hospice activities.

5.  Comprehensive Medicines Management (CMM), case-based active management of changes and (future) pharmacist prescribing activities, as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Competence
The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand has already developed competence standards and accreditation pathways for Medicines Use Review and Adherence Support (MUR).

Standards for Medicines Therapy Assessment and Comprehensive Medicines Management are currently being developed.

Training
The Pharmacy Council has provisionally accredited the Medicines Use Review Training Course provided by the NZ College of Pharmacists.  This course enables pharmacists to become accredited to provide MUR services.  Pharmacists providing these services must demonstrate they comply with the Pharmacy Council Competence Standards for MUR.

Framework
The Framework provides nationally-consistent service descriptions, funding units, base-level  monitoring and reporting, and a toolkit to facilitate adoption of the new services.  Details will soon be presented to District Health Boards.  Individual DHBs will make their own decisions as to which particular additional services they will purchase, based on local need and funding priorities.

The Society congratulates the DHBNZ Pharmacy Advisory Group for driving this initiative and being its champion.  Thanks also to the pioneering pharmacists who provided to the project team their work experience and knowledge.

The Framework, and more information about the new services and their implementation, is on the Society members' website www.psnz.org.nz and details of the MUR training course are on the College of Pharmacists site www.psnz.org.nz/public/cop/index.aspx.

Richard Townley

Chief Executive Officer, Pharmaceutical Society of NZ Inc