Let your hook always be cast
Those pharmacists who have read the four
articles we have now published about opportunities in the new general medical services contract should have a clearer idea of the way the Government's mind has been working. The emphasis is, explicitly and implicitly, on chronic disease management. And because so much of successful chronic disease management is medicine-based, there are opportunities for pharmacists to plug the gaps that GPs will not be able to fill themselves. Medication review
is a service at the heart of chronic disease management and one which
pharmacists are ideally placed to offer. The final article in the series
(Agenda for 2004, p350) highlights a number of clinical areas where
pharmacists can provide the appropriate support.
Community pharmacists would be mistaken to think that these opportunities
will all be snapped up by primary care pharmacists directly employed
by a primary care organisation, such as a primary care trust in England.
In Prescribing & Medicines Management — which, starting
this week, will now be published quarterly with The Journal as a central pull-out
section — we describe a number of schemes where pharmacists are
paid sessional rates for medication review, something community pharmacists
can just as easily provide. Those pharmacists with good negotiating skills
are likely to be able to strike the best deals, because they need to
convince GPs and PCOs that medication review is better conducted by a
pharmacist than by a nurse (even though the latter may apparently be
less costly).
The introduction of the new GMS contract offers other opportunities for
pharmacists —
particularly in some geographical areas, or for groups of patients whose
care is not explicitly covered. Previously we have discussed the ways
that pharmacists might be able to help in areas where GPs opt out of
out-of-hours cover and decide not to opt back in (PJ, 31 January, p122).
This week, we turn our attention to a group of people that may find themselves
without access to good primary care: Britain’s student population.
The GMS contract — with all that emphasis on chronic diseases — seems
to have overlooked students’ needs. By and large they are healthy,
of course, but in order to ensure that they stay healthy as they grow
older, their needs should not be underestimated. This week’s News
feature looks at students’ attitudes to their health and what pharmacists
can do to support them (p345). In areas where GPs seem to be thin on
the ground or not meeting students’ needs, there are several opportunities
for pharmacists to consider: emergency contraception, advising them about
smoking and helping them deal with sleepless nights are three that come
quickly to mind.
While community pharmacists await their own new contract, there is nothing
to stop them netting the opportunities presented to them by the GPs’ one.
As the Roman poet Ovid wrote: Let your hook always be cast; in the pool
where you least expect it, there will be a fish.
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