Developing role for pharmacists in emergency care
Pharmacists are helping to cut the workload in casualty departments |
Changes to the GP contract have brought pharmacists a new role in a hospital accident and emergency department that can help the NHS meet its waiting time targets.
Pharmacists at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales were asked
if they could help deal with the increasing workload in the hospital’s
minor injuries area. They responded by making themselves available for
a few hours each day to see patients who could mostly have been managed
by community pharmacists.
Suzanne Davies, emergency unit pharmacy team leader, said: “The
sort of conditions we saw depended on the time of year. We started in
January and February with viral chests, coughs and colds, and then went
into allergies, sun reactions, bites and stings.”
The pharmacists became more involved after physiotherapists pointed out
that patients with suspected fractures or sprains were waiting for X-rays
and diagnosis with no pain relief. Now the pharmacists are also providing
analgesics, such as paracetamol, co-codamol and ibuprofen.
The new service has had a measurable impact on patient waiting times
in the hospital’s A&E department. At times when pharmacists
were available, the average total attendance time per patient was reduced
from 157.1 minutes to 143.8 minutes. Patients who needed to see doctors
also did so more quickly, with 54.8 per cent seeing a doctor within an
hour, compared with 49.8 per cent when pharmacists were not available.
The service, originally set up as a pilot, has been so successful that
it now has permanent
funding.
Pharmacists are also seen by the Department of Health as providing part
of the answer to improving emergency care. A report by Sir George Alberti,
the Department’s director for emergency access, published this
week, sees community pharmacists working alongside other primary care
professionals and using their skills to deliver good quality urgent care.
In the longer term, Professor Alberti envisages emergency care networks,
which will include pharmacies, being commissioned by primary care trusts
to deliver the full range of emergency services. A key challenge, he
says, will be to break down existing boundaries.
“Emergency care networks will rebuild the provision of care around
each patient, rather than each patient having to move from one provider
to
the next.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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