Community pharmacists in North Nottinghamshire are part of a bid for £200,000 from the Living with Cancer fund in order to provide seamless care for cancer patients.
North Nottinghamshire health authority's public health adviser for pharmaceutical services (Ms Sharon Pfleger) told The Journal on June 27 that if the bid was successful at least one community pharmacist in each primary care group or trust would be involved with discharge planning in order to smooth the transfer of patients from hospitals to their own homes. They would ensure that the correct medicines and care were in place when patients were discharged.
The pharmacists would make domiciliary visits to plan, monitor and review patient held pharmaceutical care plans to enable patients and their carers to maintain good symptom control. Patients, carers and health professionals would annotate record cards that should facilitate seamless care.
She said that the service would mean that patients knew about their symptoms and how to relieve them, the use and side effects of their medicines and sources of help, advice and support for other aspects of their care. The pharmacists would make sure that patients and carers understood how to take complex regimens of medicines correctly. Medicines would be supplied in compliance aids, if requested. Unwanted medicines would be disposed of and care would be taken to ensure that they were removed from care plans.
There would also be co-ordinated 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year access to an agreed formulary of specialist palliative care medicines. This should facilitate good symptom control and reduce inappropriate admissions.
If the bid is successful, the scheme is expected to start in April, 2001.