Our people
Most of our people are highly experienced with 10 years’ or more having been spent in general or specialist roles in hospital or primary care before joining SPS.
Most team members are employed by one of a number of host provider trusts in England.
Our teams
We operate as a single integrated team spanning all 7 regions of NHS England & Improvement. We are hosted by a number of NHS Trusts across the country and are a close-knit group of highly experienced pharmacy professionals and support staff.
Dr Justine Scanlan leads the service which is spread across 5 service elements.
Digital
The SPS Digital function maintains and develops the digital product offer. It works both across each SPS function and with external suppliers and stakeholders. It seeks to deliver value to end-users from SPS’s digital offer. It does this be applying the NHS Digital Service manual as well as other national and international best practice usability, design and development standards.
Medicines information
The SPS MI function provides specialist information and advice about medicines use for health care professionals. There are 3 core service elements to the MI function: clinical enquiry answering, provision of information and resources, and support to the Regional Medicines Optimisation Committee network.
Medicines use and safety
The SPS Medicines Use and Safety function supports the safe use of medicines across the NHS by providing resources and outputs that prevent duplication, and by developing and facilitating professional networks.
Procurement
The pharmacy procurement function aims to ensure that hospital pharmacy procurement teams can always access the medicines they need. This may range from resolving requests relating to a single patient, to helping coordinate national approaches to distribution and supply, and everything in between. If the problem relates to medicines supply, we will try to fix it.
Quality assurance
The SPS QA Function supports the continuous quality improvement in the governance arrangements for the safe handling, preparation and purchasing of medicines across the NHS through the provision of advice, best practice guidance and implementation resources.