Harrow pharmacists launch heart disease screening programme
Community pharmacists in Harrow, north London, have
started an intervention programme aimed at screening patients with coronary
heart disease using national service framework guidelines. Similar schemes
for unwanted medicines and excessive prescribing have also started.
Riaz Esmail, prescribing adviser to Harrow East
and Kingsbury Primary Care Group and chairman of Brent and Harrow Local
Pharmaceutical Committee, said that the schemes have been developed with
the aim of including all community pharmacists in the area in the work
of the PCGs. A pharmacy liaison group, involving representatives from
Brent and Harrow Health Authority, PCG prescribing advisers and the LPC,
had been involved in drawing up the schemes, which build on existing informal
working arrangements.
For the CHD scheme, 40 pharmacists from 25 of the
60 pharmacies in Harrow attended a training evening and were given copies
of the NSF guidance. Each pharmacy has a list of the medical practices
taking part in the scheme. Patients from these practices who come into
a pharmacy either to purchase low-dose aspirin, to have a prescription
for cardiovascular medicines dispensed or in response to pharmacy window
posters will be asked for their consent to join the scheme. Pharmacists
then hold a short interview with them. The results are recorded on an
intervention form which is faxed to Webstar Health, a pharmacy internet
consultancy, for analysis. Details are then passed to PCG prescribing
advisers to be followed up with the patient's surgery. Pharmacists are
paid £20 for each intervention. Brent and Harrow has the third highest
incidence of CHD in England and Wales, accounting for almost 19 per cent
of deaths in the area.
Similar schemes are in place for when patients or
their representatives return unwanted medicines or when pharmacists consider
that excessive quantities are being prescribed. If the value of unwanted
medicines returned exceeds £100, the person returning them is asked why
they are being returned. Excessive prescribing is more than 84 days' supply
or other amounts that pharmacists do not feel comfortable with.
The schemes will run for six months, with an interim
analysis at three months. After that, Harrow East and Kingsbury PCG will
be merging with Harrow West PCG to form Harrow Primary Care Trust. A bid
will be made for service development money to fund further training for
more pharmacists to join the scheme and to continue the analysis and intervention
payments.
"The scheme has lots of potential," Mr Esmail said.
Further developments could include looking at benzodiazepine prescribing
or the use of glibenclamide in elderly patients. An internet-based system
for recording interventions and making payments is a longer-term possibility.
Back to Top
|
