Pharmacy teams must be fully integrated into palliative care, says RPS
Published: 27 November 2025
This news story was published when the organisation was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is calling for reforms that place pharmacists and their teams at the heart of palliative and end-of-life care so that patients and their families can access the medicines, support and joined up care they need.
Statistics show 568,613 people died in England and Wales in 2024 with around 90% requiring some level of palliative care. However, many patients and families still face delays getting essential medicines, experience poor communication between services and limited access to expert support in the community, especially out of hours.
‘Palliative & End of Life Care: pharmacy’s contribution to improved patient care‘, makes clear recommendations about supporting patients, getting timely access to medicines, access to patient records, improving education and training on palliative care and embedding pharmacists in palliative care teams.
Many of these recommendations are underpinned by the need for seamless information sharing and access to patient records across the multidisciplinary team, enabling joined up and integrated care.
Other recommendations include faster access to urgent and controlled drugs, especially out-of-hours, support post bereavement, including medicine disposal and signposting to services, and the creation of lead paediatric palliative care pharmacist roles in every region.
Originally published by RPS Wales in 2018, this updated policy now reflects guidance from across Great Britain.
RPS President Professor Claire Anderson said:
“Patients and their families should not have to spend their final months navigating fragmented care.
“Pharmacists are central to helping people stay comfortable and supported at the end of life, but too often they are working without access to vital information or key systems.
“Our recommendations set out practical steps that governments, the wider NHS and all involved in a patient’s care can take now to ensure people receive safe, timely and compassionate care and ensure consistent, expert care throughout the last phase of life.”
Dr Sarah Holmes, Chief Medical Officer at Marie Curie, said:
“Pharmacists have the skills and accessibility to make care faster and easier to access for patients and their families; they’re an essential part of end-of-life and palliative care.
“As a leading palliative and end of life charity, we have long called for better integration between services, so we welcome this call for urgent reform. Dying people need access to care that is within reach for them — right on their doorsteps — and pharmacists along with the wider NHS play a vital role in providing this.”
In partnership with Marie Curie UK, RPS also publishes quality improvement standards for palliative and end-of-life care in community pharmacies called The Daffodil Standards.
Read Palliative & End of Life Care: pharmacy’s contribution to improved patient care.
Read more RCPharm news stories.
Related news
Pharmacy pressures highlighted in Welsh Senedd
This news story was published when the organisation was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Members of the Senedd (MSs) have been hearing about the pressures community pharmacists and their teams are facing and the support required for the sector. In a joint event by the RPS and Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW), MSs gathered over Tuesday lunchtime for a briefing on the state of community pharmacy in Wales – touching on both the tireless and high-quality work of community pharmacy teams and the various pressure points that are affecting the sector at present. The discussions focused on the worrying trend of community pharmacy closures in Wales, with 26 shutting down since July 2020. This is coupled with feedback from both the RPS and CPW membership that pressures on the sector are also leading to both reduced opening and staffing hours. Other key issues raised included the need for protected learning time, challenges in securing vital medications, and the decline in real-time funding for the reimbursement of medicines. Commenting on the briefing event, RPS Wales Director Elen Jones said: “It was uplifting to hear strong support and appreciation from the politicians for community pharmacy, along with recognition of pharmacists’ expanding clinical and prescribing roles and the vital contribution this has made to the NHS in recent years. "In our discussions, we emphasised our support to sustain and expand the clinical and prescribing roles of community pharmacists as set out in 'Pharmacy; Delivering a Healthier Wales' and the contractual framework for community pharmacies in Wales; ‘Presgripsiwn Newydd/A New Prescription’. However, for this to occur, the concerns and pressures facing the sector must be heard and addressed. "I’d like to thank CPW for joining us for this event and hope their upcoming discussions with the Welsh Government result in increased support for the community pharmacy sector. At RPS Wales, we will continue to raise important issues for our members at the Senedd, with our next quarterly briefing event scheduled for December due to focus on our upcoming report on medicines shortages." Read more RCPharm news stories.
Implementing Pharmacy 2030 in Shetland
This news story was published when the organisation was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. In June 2024, Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), visited pharmacy teams across Shetland, to witness their innovative practice and implementation of RPS’s vision for the future of pharmacy, Pharmacy 2030, across a remote island community. During the two-day visit, Anderson, accompanied by Anthony McDavitt, director of pharmacy, NHS Shetland and Interim Deputy Chief Officer, Shetland Community Health and Social Care Partnership, visited two community pharmacies, Laings Pharmacy in Lerwick and Brae Pharmacy. Both pharmacies have independent prescribing pharmacists providing a vital first point of contact healthcare service for their communities; independent prescribing being a cornerstone of our vision. Anderson also met with the hospital pharmacy team at Gilbert Bain Hospital and had the opportunity to present on our vision for hospital pharmacy, which includes releasing pharmacists to patient facing roles and advancing clinical practice including caseload management. It was fantastic to hear that the team had already done some focused work based on the vision. On the Wednesday, Anderson visited pharmacists working in primary care, in one of the Scottish government 'Primary care improvement plan' pharmacotherapy demonstrator sites. Alongside visitors from Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Primary Care Phased Investment Programme, Anderson was able to present on the RPS vision for general practice pharmacy, with our central focus on improving skill-mix across pharmacy teams so better use can be made of pharmacists’ knowledge, skills and experience to support patients. Speaking about the visit, Anderson said: “Thank you so much to pharmacy teams across Shetland for welcoming me, and for being so generous with your time to demonstrate the fantastic work which every pharmacist in Shetland is involved in on behalf of the island community. “I am so proud to witness the implementation of our vision for the future of pharmacy, Pharmacy 2030, and learn about the innovative approaches taking place to implement this in a remote and rural setting. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, a member of the RPS Scotland team was unable to join this time and we look forward to our next visit to understand how this work is progressing, so that ultimately, patients receive the very best care possible from their pharmacy teams.” Speaking about the visit, McDavitt said: “It was fantastic to showcase the great work of our pharmacy teams across Shetland with Claire from RPS. We have a lot going on in Shetland and it was great to cover the breadth of the service in a couple of days. “Our pharmacy teams are busy innovating across community, hospital and primary care, and are implementing Pharmacy 2030, RPS’s vision for the future of pharmacy, to improve patient care, and experience. I’m glad we had the opportunity to have Claire with us during our workshop for the Primary Care Phased Investment Programme we have in Shetland through Scottish government funding. It’s essential to have professional body input into the development of pharmacy services and the changing of pharmacy roles in Scotland. “Thank you to Claire for making the trip to Shetland and we look forward to demonstrating our impactful work again to RPS colleagues at a future visit.” Read more RCPharm news stories.