Pharmacists want to refer patients direct to GPs
Pharmacists should be able to book GP appointments for patients
who need referral, the Society says |
Pharmacists would be interested in launching a patient “choose and book” system, similar to that being rolled out in surgeries, so they could directly refer patients for a GP appointment, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society suggested this week.
The idea has been put forward by the Society as part of its official
response to the Government’s public consultation, “Your
health, your care, your say”, which will help decide what goes into the
White Paper on health care outside hospital due to be published in the
New Year.
The Society would like to see a national scheme developed, similar to
that already used in Italy, where pharmacists use an internal computer
system to make patient appointments with a GP.
In its response, the Society said: “There was recognition that
in many local situations, a referral from the local pharmacist is often
an important passport through GP surgery systems, but this is often based
on local relationships developed over many years rather than the norm.”
Some pharmacists who already visit patients in their homes are also ideally
placed to make a referral, if appropriate, to social services or identify
other health needs, the Society said. Their lack of involvement in the
referral process at the moment represents a “missed opportunity”.
The Society also called for pharmacists to have full access to NHS computerised
patient records — including being able to add their comments. It
told the Department of Health: “Being able to write to the record
is clearly important, too, for information to be communicated effectively.”
Pharmacists and other health care professionals are often ignorant of
each other’s different roles and responsibilities in the “patient
journey”, the Society said. This is particularly true about GPs’ understanding
of the new community pharmacy contract as well as pharmacists’ understanding
of the new contractual arrangements in general practice, it said.
The development of good practice national models for the care of patients
with long-term conditions, which spelt out individual professional responsibilities
and roles, could go some way to help inform the different professional
groups about where they fit in the “patient journey”. National
models would also help to spread best practice. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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