The British Society of Pharmacy Sleep Services (BSPSS) is a new society that will support community pharmacists’ knowledge and understanding of various sleep disorders to ensure patients receive timely and appropriate advice and are signposted to other healthcare professionals where necessary.
“The BSPSS will promote the role of community pharmacy as a trusted source of advice and information for patients with sleep problems, in order to create a patient-centric network of pharmacy-based sleep services,” says inaugural president of the BSPSS, Gareth Evans, a community pharmacist, in a release. “Community pharmacists are the healthcare professionals on the high street and a highly accessible source of advice on a wide range of health issues.” Evans says community pharmacists are an under-utilized resource for patients with sleep problems. “With the appropriate training, community pharmacists can triage patients seeking advice on a wide range of sleep-related problems including insomnia, snoring, sleep apnea and even narcolepsy.”
The BSPSS is undertaking research at https://bspss.org examining community pharmacists’ current knowledge and awareness of various sleep-related problems; to identify critical knowledge gaps and guide subsequent development of future training materials. The society invites all community pharmacists to complete the quiz.
The BSPSS will establish a network of sleep-trained pharmacists who liaise with local sleep services and, perhaps in the future, refer patients directly into these services.
The board of the BSPSS are pharmacy and sleep medicine professionals who come together to enhance sleep education for community pharmacists. The BSPSS will provide up to date sleep and circadian research and information to pharmacists around the world to improve patient access to valid, evidence-based sleep information.
