The government’s list of ‘key workers’ who can keep sending their children to school during the coronavirus pandemic includes pharmacists and pharmacy staff, the RPS has said.
An open letter to headteachers from RPS president, Sandra Gidley, was published last night (19 March) in response to the guidance issued by the government on which staff are to be considered ‘key workers’ during the Covid-19 crisis.
Children of these key workers can continue to attend school
if they are healthy, while others are to be kept at home, in attempts to limit
the spread of the virus.
Related Article: Pharmacies spending ‘longer than ever’ managing medicines supply issues
The letter, in full, reads:
To Headteachers,
RE: Key workers and the COVID-19 pandemic
The announcement from the Department for Education on 19 March on Guidance for schools, colleges and local authorities on maintaining educational provision notes that schools have been asked to continue to provide care for children whose parents are critical to the COVID-19 response and cannot be safely cared for at home.
This includes children of parents who work in health and social care, which covers pharmacists and their support teams, as well as those working in the health and social care supply chain, such as producers and distributors of medicines.
Related Article: Turbo-charge community pharmacy to save A&E millions of hours, says NPA
Pharmacists and support staff are critical to the COVID-19 response and key workers in the health service. We know that pharmacy teams are working hard on the frontline to support the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yours sincerely,
Sandra Gidley FRPharmS
President
Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Related Article: MHRA recalls medication with label error
Meanwhile, pharmacists have taken to Twitter to express
their frustration over not being explicitly named on the list of ‘critical’ NHS
healthcare workers.
‘Distributors of medicine’ were listed as among ‘those
working as part of the health and social care supply chain’.
Have your say
Please add your comment in the box below. You can include links, but HTML is not permitted. Please note that comments are not moderated before publication and the views expressed are those of the user and do not reflect the views of The Pharmacist. Remember that submission of comments is governed by our Terms and Conditions. You can also read our full guidelines on article comments here – but please be aware that you are legally liable for any libellous or offensive comments that you make. If you have a complaint about a comment or are concerned that a comment breaches our terms and conditions, please use the ‘Report this comment’ function to alert our web team.