The All-Party Pharmacy Group of members of Parliament and the House of Lords has told the Government that it should pay for a £1.8m trial of cardiac medicines management by community pharmacists.
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Allen Tweedie (left) explained medicines management to the All Party Pharmacy Group at a meeting at the House of Commons on April 4 |
"At present, interventions by community pharmacists to ensure compliance and drug effectiveness generally take place in an unstructured fashion, although the provision by pharmacists of prescribing advice to general medical practitioners has been successfully piloted in structured trials by a number of health authorities," it says. "The provision of prescribing advice is, however, only one component of the range of services that community pharmacists could provide in delivering the objectives of clinical- and cost-effectiveness."
Having examined the medicines management proposal for itself, the group concludes: "We believe it will enhance clinical- and cost-effectiveness in the use of NHS medicines and, in the process, bring tangible benefits to patients. It will also result in improved teamworking between GPs and community pharmacists. In addition, it is clear to us on the basis of comments made at our meeting by Sir Michael Rawlins (chairman, National Institute for Clinical Excellence) that medicines management would assist the NICE in achieving its objectives."
The full text of the All Party Pharmacy Group's report can be found on PJ Online at www.pharmj.com/Extradocs/20000506/apgreport.html.