Why is it important?
An effectively managed IBD service doesn’t just happen. It requires a defined leadership team, which includes both clinician and managerial input. They are responsible for a documented annual plan for the service – with named leads for all key activities and clear timescales for completion.
This leadership team should agree a clear structure for a series of documented meetings. This, for example, might include a regular business meeting every 8 weeks, an annual governance meeting, and an annual review and strategy meeting.
Increasingly, we are recognising the value of a specialist pharmacist as a key element of the core IBD team and its leadership. This responds to the growing range of high cost, powerful drug treatments available – and the greater responsibility this brings to ensure they are being prescribed, administered and monitored appropriately. A specialist pharmacist is ideally placed to advise on medicines management and optimisation as part of ensuring overall medicines governance. 1,2,3