PHARMACISTS HAVE A VITAL ROLE TO PLAY IN A&E

摘要

Two recently published studies by Health Education England (HEE) on pharmacists in hospital emergency departments (A&E) have demonstrated the potential for pharmacists to manage the pharmaceutical care of up to 36% of patients attending A&E. Increasing numbers of patients and high throughput puts significant pressure on emergency department staff. In the final two weeks of 2014, performance against the government's four-hour waiting time target fell for all attendances to 89.6%, compared with 95.9% in the same period in 2013. In November 2014, ￡700m of additional funding was announced to support winter pressures on the NHS, while demand is continuously increasing alongside shortages of staff trained in urgent and emergency care.