Health Education England (HEE) have announced that £440,000 has been allocated to help upskill pharmacists working in adult critical care across England. See specification and guidance pack here.

We have confirmed with HEE that UKCPA critical care courses meet the criteria for this funding, for courses that complete before 31 March 2023. The funding is expected to exceed demand and so it is likely that bids for these UKCPA courses will be approved by HEE, as they meet the learning outcomes in the new RPS/UKCPA/FICM specialist critical care curricula (in development). 

The following courses are now open for booking and meet the HEE criteria for full funding:

• UKCPA Critical Care Advanced Pharmacy Symposium
  25 November 2022, London
  For critical care pharmacists working at advanced or mastery level.   
• UKCPA Critical Care Foundation Online Learning Course
  6 & 8 December 2022
  5 & 9 January 2023
  For critical care pharmacists new to ICU, occasional ICU or HDU cover, or for rotational staff that will rotate into critical care. 
• UKCPA Critical Care Advanced Level Course
  12, 19, 26 January & 2 February 2023
  For critical care pharmacists working at or towards advanced level with six months or more experience.   

UKCPA will release more courses according to demand. 

Actions for ICU pharmacy leads, in liaison with line manager and departmental education and training leads:

• Identify staff that meet the criteria and are keen to attend the Foundation Online Course, Advanced Online Course or Advanced Pharmacy Symposium.
• For each course to be attended, identify if the delegate is a UKCPA member or not, and the provisional course date. 
  **Course dates may be changed up to two weeks before, depending on demand. If the current advertised dates are inconvenient, more will be released in the next few weeks**
• Ensure bids are submitted for the total cost of ALL course(s) by 25 November 2022, based on UKCPA member or non-member fee(s). Confirmation of funding approval will be received by Trusts by 5 December 2022.  Delegates will need to book onto the courses according to local study leave process and line manager approval. Trusts will be reimbursed in January 2023 for successful bids.
• Funding bids for the Advanced Level Symposium or December Foundation Online Course will in effect be retrospective. However there is more than sufficient HEE funding to cover these courses. Anyone already booked onto these courses can be added to this funding submission.