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Sharing and teamworking will be key themes of the new collaborative
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This July the first meeting of a new community pharmacy medicines management
group will take place. It has been created in particular to help primary
care trusts in England accelerate implementation of the new community
pharmacy contract in their areas.
Designed by the National Prescribing Centre’s medicines management
team and supported by the Department of Health, the community pharmacy
framework collaborative (CPFC) is a programme designed to encourage PCTs
to work together to share their learning, to avoid duplication of efforts
and facilitate the spread of good practice.
Richard Seal, director of medicines management at the NPC, explains that
the CPFC will build on experience from the existing NPC medicines management
services. “Feedback from primary care trusts tells us that the
collaborative way of working is well received and that work resulting
from these collaboratives is generally sustained in the long term,” he
says.
PCTs hosting the programme
The 28 PCTs chosen to lead the CPFC programme are Bristol North,
Welwyn and Hatfield, Eastern Birmingham, St Helens, Durham
and Chester-le-Street, Carlisle and district, South West Dorset,
Tendring,
Stockport, Portsmouth City, South West Kent, Hinckley and Bosworth,
Central Suffolk, Haringey, West Hull, Newham, Westminster,
Gateshead, Burntwood, Lichfield and Tamworth, Lambeth, Sutton and
Merton,
Mid Devon, South East Sheffield, Mid Sussex, Milton Keynes,
Amber Valley, Wyre Forest and East Leeds.
A full list of the lead PCTs, including their associated PCTs,
can be accessed as a Microsoft Word document |
How the CPFC programme will encourage shared
learning
The CPFC programme will last for 12 months,
starting in July. Every three months teams from each host PCT
will attend programme
workshops. “PCTs
will share details about what they have already achieved, how they
have done it and their experiences of what has worked for them,” says
Mr Seal. “It is all about team development and testing ideas.
PCTs will then go away and incorporate what they have learnt into
their own areas.”
As well as working towards common goals, each team will also decide
on objectives based on local priorities. Outcome measures will
be designed to monitor progress, for example, the number of medicines
use reviews carried out during a defined period. The PCTs will
share
what they have learnt with other organisations in their areas,
which may involve organising and hosting local events or developing
local
networks.
“Although direct contact with the NPC finishes after 12 months, PCTs
and pharmacists will be able to use the tools they have learnt
to continue to improve their services indefinitely,” says Mr Seal. |
In February all PCTs were invited to apply to their strategic health
authorities to host the programme locally and to be responsible for
sharing the learning with other PCTs in their area. The successful PCTs,
one
from each HA area, were announced last week (see Panel).
“The NPC provided a selection template to help the health authorities
decide which PCTs were best placed to host the programme,” Mr Seal
explains. “Criteria included evidence of collaborative working
in the past, a good understanding of what could be achieved from this
programme and a good track record of delivering service improvements.”
Some PCTs have applied to host the programme in partnership with other
local PCTs. For example, in Cheshire and Merseyside SHA, St Helens PCT
has been named as the programme lead, although it will work in close
association with Knowsley PCT, with which it has a history of shared
working.
Mark Pilling, community pharmacy development manager at Knowsley PCT,
says: “Being part of the collaborative will allow us to move forward
more quickly by providing better access to learning earlier on. Because
we will be implementing ideas that have already been tested in different
PCTs, they are more likely to be successful and sustainable in the long
term.”
Each PCT will appoint a project facilitator who will be responsible for
co-ordinating a team of 10 representatives to attend programme workshops
and help integrate new learning into the daily work of the trust. PCTs
participating in the programme will receive up to £40,000 to recruit
this facilitator.
“The NPC will also provide discretionary funding to some PCTs to support
the spread and implementation of best practice in response to local need,” says
Mr Seal.
According to Mr Pilling, the rate of spread of good practice will depend
on both the host PCT and other PCTs in the area being proactive. “Some
PCTs may actively seek us out for updates and advice,” he explains. “But
we are also planning to hold events in the health authority to help the
others learn.”
Helen Hulme, assistant director of medicines management at Amber Valley
PCT, Derbyshire, a lead PCT in the programme, explains that applying
to host the collaborative seemed a natural step for the PCT to tie in
with other community pharmacy services they are already offering.
“We have a philosophy around networking and sharing ideas,” she
explains, “and by being part of the collaborative we can get ideas
from the whole country. It does not make sense for each PCT to be holding
the same meeting separately and coming up with similar problems when
it could be done as a collaborative.”
Information should start trickling down to community pharmacists shortly
after the first meeting. “From a collaborative point of view it
is important that PCTs share information with their community pharmacists
in the best way possible,” says Mrs Hulme. She explains that Amber
Valley PCT will be communicating this information to community pharmacists
via its monthly newsletter, at its regular pharmacy development group
meetings and via its e-mail based discussion group.
Although the CPFC project facilitator may not necessarily be a pharmacist,
Mrs Hulme emphasises the importance of having pharmacists in the host
team that will be attending the workshops to disseminate information
to their colleagues.
Mr Seal adds: “Community pharmacists who would like to be part
of these teams should contact their PCT and find out how to get involved
and how they can benefit from the collaborative.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal