Medicines management services — barriers remain
Pharmacists reviewed patient notes and made recommendations |
Community pharmacy-led medicines management services are generally well accepted by pharmacists and patients, although GPs may need more persuasion.
These were findings from one of the research projects presented at the
Health Services
Research and Pharmacy Practice conference organised by
the University of Reading and the College of Pharmacy Practice last month.
The Community Pharmacy Medicines Management project was a randomised
controlled trial assessing the impact community pharmacists can have
on improving the health outcomes of people with coronary heart disease.
Over one year, 67 pharmacists reviewed patients’ medicines using
information from medical notes, made recommendations to the GP and gave
advice to the patients.
The results showed that pharmacists generally responded positively to
participating in the reviews and said that it made better use of their
clinical skills. Over half of pharmacist respondents believed relationships
with GPs had improved. However, they also reported time pressures, GP
resistance to their recommendations and lack of access to patients’ records.
Pharmacists generally believed that the service was unsustainable within
the community pharmacy framework at the time of the project.
GPs expressed mixed opinions about whether the project had strengthened
their relationship with pharmacists and whether the service should be
more widely available. Of 21 GPs interviewed, six were positive about
the project, eight were ambivalent and the remainder were more negative
than positive. GPs raised concerns about their workload, about pharmacists
having access to patient data and about duplication of recommendations.
A small number were concerned that commercial pressures may affect pharmacists’ clinical
decisions.
From a patient perspective, however, the study showed that the medicines
management project meets criteria outlined by patients as what they would
like from such a service.
Abstracts presented at the conference can be accessed here |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader