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On the16th September
2004, the Government launched the first ever National Service Framework
(NSF) for Children, Young People and Maternity services. It is a
ten year plan which aims to set standards in eleven core areas to
promote the health and well-being of children and young people and
provide high quality services which meet their needs.
The secretary of State
John Reid has stated, "At the heart of this National Service Framework
is a fundamental change in our way of thinking about children's
health. It advocates a shift with services being designed and delivered
around the needs of the child."
Professor Al Aynsley-Green,
The National Clinical Director For Children, adds "There is now
for the first time in many years, an explicit commitment from government
to improve the lives and health of children and young people in
England, one component of this being this NSF for children."
The NSF is targeted
at all health professionals and organisations dealing with children
in primary, secondary and tertiary care.
Standard 10 of the NSF
addresses the use of medicines for children, which highlights a
number of important visions that the NSF aims to fulfil:
- All children and
young people receiving medicines that are safe and effective,
in formulations that can be administered easily and appropriate
to their age
- Medicines being prescribed
and dispensed by well-trained professionals
- Children and their
parents or carers being well informed and supported to make choices
about their medicines and are competent in administrating them
These visions will be
achieved by:
- Detailed care and
attention needed to be paid when advising children and young people,
taking into account their age, weight and developmental stage
- Medication safety
being improved
- Partnership between
professionals and parents and their children and the provision
of high quality information is crucial to ensure concordance and
improve outcomes for children and young people
- Safe medication practice
such as avoiding sugared medicines to prevent potential tooth
decay
- Primary Care trusts
and NHS trusts ensuring that individuals who dispense or administer
medicines to children are competent in the use of medicine in
children, which will be achieved through continuing professional
development. Therefore healthcare professionals need to be able
to access support and information from paediatric specialists
who have the knowledge and expertise in the handling of medicines
by children
- Clear, understandable
and up-to-date information is required for parents
- The increased use
of the community pharmacies. Many consultations with general practitioners
or practice nurses, for minor illnesses, could be dealt with by
the community pharmacist
- The role of the Community
pharmacist needs to be extended and used as an informed and skilled
resource to support self-care for parents, children and young
people and sign posting to other services
While Standard 10 highlights
the main issues in children's medicine, Standards 2 and 6 touch
on some more relevant issues, which are important to acknowledge.
- Standard 2 recognises
the importance of supporting parents or carers enabling them to
receive the information, services and support which will help
them to care for their children
- Standard 6 calls
for an improvement in the prevention, assessment and treatment
of pain management
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