PSNC pharmacy development awards announced
The winners of the 2004 Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee pharmacy development awards were announced this week.
The awards are made to local pharmaceutical committees to promote community
pharmacy development. This year, two awards were made to East Riding
and Hull LPC, one to South and West Devon LPC, and one to North and East
Devon LPC. The PSNC said that the 2004 awards focus on innovative services
or developments of existing services that promote the role of the community
pharmacist and could be commissioned by primary care trusts.
In East Riding and Hull, one award was made for a weight management programme.
Patients will be referred by their GP to a weight management support
service provided by community pharmacists. Patients will visit the pharmacy
every fortnight for lifestyle advice and measurement of body mass index,
blood pressure, cholesterol level and waist circumference. The possibility
of introducing a patient group direction for orlistat (Xenical) is being
explored.
The second award in East Riding and Hull is for a project that will test
the feasibility of involving community pharmacists in an existing national
chlamydia awareness screening programme (CASPHER). Pharmacists will supply
chlamydia testing kits and provide advice about how to use them.
The South and West Devon award will allow the evaluation of two community
pharmacy-led medication review services for patients aged over 65 years.
In one, patients were referred to pharmacists by a falls clinic and in
the other by GPs. Structured reviews took place in the community pharmacy,
at the patient’s home or at the falls clinic. The evaluation will
compare the benefits of the locations in which the reviews took place.
The evaluation will start next month and results are expected in early
2005.
North and East Devon LPC’s project will use community pharmacists
to improve
concordance among obese men taking statins. Patients who have been newly
prescribed a statin will be either identified by pharmacists or referred
by their GP. The pharmacist will then review the patient after one, four
and 12 months. Patients will be given lifestyle information and compliance
will be checked.
“The awards are allowing these projects to get off the ground,” commented
Sue Taylor, chief officer of Devon LPCs. “They help to trigger
communication between the LPC and PCT. We selected the areas for our
bids for the awards by contacting the PCT and asking what areas we should
make a bid in.”
Each project will receive up to £2,500. Details of the projects
will be available shortly on the PSNC’s community pharmacy services
database, which can be accessed here |
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