Prescribing and Medicines Management in Primary Care: Current Practice, Training Needs and Opportunities for Interprofessional Collaboration
A multi-professional webinar in collaboration with AFREhealth and ECSA-HC
Across the East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region, prescribing and medicines management in primary care are delivered through a variety of professional models, influenced by workforce availability, geography, regulatory frameworks, and training pathways. While these approaches help improve access to care, they also raise important considerations around scope of practice, patient safety, training and supervision, continuing professional development (CPD), and how multidisciplinary team (MDT) collaboration can be strengthened.
This webinar – delivered by the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) in collaboration with the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth) and the ECSA Health Community – served as a shared learning and scoping discussion, bringing together nursing and pharmacy colleagues from across the region to explore current practices, identify common challenges and enabling factors, and discuss opportunities to strengthen structured multidisciplinary collaboration in primary care.
Watch the webinar recording
Originally delivered on 13th May 2026.
Speakers
- Co-Moderator:Â Bongi Sibanda, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust and the African Forum for Primary Health Care
- Co-Moderator:Â Beth Ward, Strategic Lead | Workforce Capability Building, CPA
- Gift T. Chareka, Past President, Pharmaceutical Society of Zimbabwe
- Dr Lizemari Hugo, Associate Professor, University of the Free State
- Judy Khanyola, Vice-President, AFREhealth
- Seeletso Ndicky Modibedi, Family nurse practitioner (FNP) and educator, Botswana
- Dr Wairimu Njuki, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya
Presentations
- Judy explored workforce readiness and professional education across Africa, highlighting the gap between policy ambition and implementation and emphasising the need for competency-based curricula, strengthened clinical supervision, and investment in educator capacity to support safe prescribing practice.
- Gift presented on Zimbabwe’s evolving approach to pharmacist-led prescribing and medicines management, discussing regulatory and policy considerations, workforce capacity challenges, and the importance of building public confidence in expanded pharmacist roles – particularly in primary care.
- Ndicky provided insights into FNP education, practice, and workforce development in Botswana, highlighting the challenges that arise when professional roles expand faster than regulatory frameworks and the importance of aligning governance with evolving scopes of practice.
- Dr Njuki focused on regulatory frameworks and integrated care systems in Kenya, highlighting the importance of clear referral pathways, community-level service delivery, and collaborative practice models in strengthening prescribing and medicines management across multidisciplinary teams.
- Dr Hugo addressed education and supervision within the health workforce, emphasising the importance of structured preceptorship and clinical training systems to ensure competence, patient safety, and quality prescribing practices among healthcare professionals.
The speakers then engaged in a panel discussion expanding on topics arising from the presentations, including: barriers to implementing expanded prescribing roles; ducation, training, and supervision requirements; regulatory and policy considerations; and strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration.
Objectives and outcomes
The webinar aimed to:
- Share current practice
- Identify training and CPD needs
- Scope opportunities for MDT collaboration
- Inform the ECSA multi-professional workforce project
- Enable the implementation of the 10-year plan in England through the development of Internationally Educated Health Workforce Educators for advancing practice and the prescribing workforce (pharmacists, allied health professionals, nurses and international medical graduates) in primary and social care settings
- Upskill prescribers new to primary and social care practice
- Harness diaspora expertise and engagement to advance mutually beneficial and equitable partnerships in healthcare workforce development between African countries and the UK
The intended outputs were to:
- Strengthen dialogue between pharmacy and nursing professions
- Share practical examples of prescribing practice in African health systems
- Identify priority areas for workforce training and development
- Highlight regulatory and policy considerations
- Generate insights to inform future collaborative programmes.
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