The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7246 p563
26 April 2003

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Better partnerships predicted between pharmacists and family doctors

New partnerships between community pharmacists and general practitioners will be developed in coming years. The trend will be driven by a number of factors, including the new GP contract. This is the conclusion of a report by Professor David Taylor and colleagues at the department of practice and policy, School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Partnerships could be facilitated by community pharmacies moving into primary care centres with GPs, he believes. Alternatively, virtual partnerships could be formed through sharing of information via computer systems. Professor Taylor found that many primary care trust managers believe hub-and-spoke models of doctors based at large primary care centres would be beneficial. However, if GPs were to work in this way, it could also lead to greater responsibilities for community pharmacists to act as gate-keepers.

Professor Taylor found that PCT managers think that pharmacists have an unexploited capacity to relieve GP workloads and improve the cost-effectiveness of medicines. "The emerging consensus in PCTs seems to be that pharmacists should take more direct responsibility for treating less serious conditions, in part through the establishment of NHS funded services." However, concerns exist about pharmacists' capacity to change.

A negative finding of the research is that PCT managers in England believe that community pharmacy services are not being developed or receiving new funding. This contrasts with both the situation with GPs and also with community pharmacy in Scotland, which was viewed in a more positive light. On a day-to-day basis, PCT top management are "in danger of being preoccupied with narrowly focused funding issues".

Professor Taylor highlights recent investment in general medical services. "There is a strong case that a similar level of new investment should be made in raising the quality of community pharmacy services," he says. "Without it, the present system of NHS primary care medicines supply could be overloaded by the workload imposed by growing prescription numbers coupled with changes in areas such as repeat dispensing and the introduction of medicines management." A better funded community pharmacy service should improve the public's health, increase patient choice, liberate GPs time and facilitate better integrated NHS care, he concludes.

The report also examined sources of health information and technological developments. If the NHS is too conservative in its approach to providing interactive information services then the public might turn to unreliable alternatives, Professor Taylor says. He cautions that if electronic health records cannot be accessed and amended by pharmacists then the community will lose significant benefits.

"Future partnerships: primary care in 2020?" Department of Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of London, 29–39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX. Price £5.