Allan Thomas: service works well |
One part of the new core pharmacy contract in Scotland, the
minor ailments service, will be based on the direct supply of medicines
project. It
has already been rolled out across Ayrshire and Arran, and Tayside.
Allan Thomas, community pharmacy adviser at NHS Ayrshire & Arran,
explained that the objectives for the service were
improving patients’ access to an appropriate health care professional,
making more efficient use of the skills of GPs and community pharmacists,
and encouraging joint working between GPs and pharmacists.
The scheme is open to patients exempt from prescription charges who are
registered with a GP in the trust area. To use the scheme, patients must
register with one pharmacy. Registration forms are then sent to the Community
Health Division to be added to a database. “Patients are either given
advice, medicine or referred to the GP,” said Mr Thomas. “Advice
and referral are recorded on the CP1 pharmacist prescription form. This
has provided an opportunity to put a number on referrals and advice given.”
Pharmacists can prescribe any pharmacy-medicine or general sale list medicine
that is not blacklisted. “We ask pharmacists to prescribe from the
Ayrshire & Arran joint formulary,” said Mr Thomas.
In April, 41,095 patients were registered and 3,663 CP1 forms written at
a cost (for the medicines) of £7,280. The figures for May were 43,960
patients, 4,160 prescriptions and £7,960 and for June, 45,198
patients, 4,988 CP1 forms and £10,215. So roughly 10 per cent of
registered patients use the service each month at a cost of about £2
per medicine prescribed.
In September, a total of 51,179 patients in Ayrshire & Arran had registered;
about 20 to 25 per cent of the eligible population. “The problem
with the current database is that it is paper-based. With more than 50,000
people, there is a problem with duplication so in the future centralised
patient registration will be based on patients’ CHI numbers,” said
Mr Thomas. “The e-pharmacy programme will allow the centralisation
of the database.”
Asked about workload implications, Mr Thomas said: “On average, pharmacists
are seeing five to 10 patients a day.” He added: “The service
works well. One year down the line, no pharmacist has wanted to pull out.” Anecdotally,
GPs have reported that since the scheme was introduced it has become easier
to reach their 48-hour access targets.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal