Letter from Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England

To: Liz Fidler, APTUK
Ellen Williams, APTUK

David Webb
Medical Directorate
First Floor
Skipton House
80 London Road
London
SE1 6LH
10 February 2022

Dear Liz and Ellen

I wanted to write an open letter to your members and all pharmacy technicians to thank you and other members of the APTUK Executive Committee for your excellent service to the pharmacy professions and patients, and to welcome the new appointment of Claire Steele as President.

In your tenure as President and Vice-President you have created, led and delivered on many successes for your profession and the NHS, including the recent publication of a five-year strategy for APTUK for 2022-26.

I’m particularly impressed by your work to:

• Include the pharmacy technician role in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme so that primary care networks are able to recruit pharmacy technicians into general practices meaning there will be many more in post in the next four years.
• Include pharmacy technicians in the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway.
• Engage in work around supervision, registration, and Initial Education and Training standards.
• Expand training places and the establishment of the Pre-Registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician role, in a system approach including primary care.
• Publish the National Competency Framework for Primary Care Pharmacy Technicians.
• Lead an organisational EDI programme, and co-chair the Inclusive Pharmacy Practice Programme.

It’s also important to highlight your support for excellent patient care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic so far.

The NHS Long Term Plan identifies a strong and growing role for the pharmacy team across the NHS which won’t be achievable without the appropriate clinical deployment of pharmacy technicians. The role of the pharmacy technician is critical to the functioning of the pharmacy team and pharmacy and medicines optimisation services in the NHS.

Now, with the help of APTUK, we need to work together to increase recruitment, maximise the clinical contribution of pharmacy technicians in the NHS, increase the numbers of those seeking professional registration make the most of the increased training places being funded by Health Education England and ensure support for APTUK as the professional body.

I’m delighted that Liz will be joining my team in March as the first Senior Professional Advisor: Pharmacy Technician Practice for NHS England and NHS Improvement, to help us deliver on this future agenda.

Yours sincerely

David Webb
Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England