The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7388 p194
18 February 2006

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Frequent-flyer report points to role for pharmacists

Pharmacists could help patients who are admitted to hospitals as emergencies more than three times a year — termed high-impact users or frequent-flyers by health staff — and who cost the NHS £2.3bn in 2003–04.

This is a key finding of a report (PDF 5.8 MB) produced by Dr Foster Intelligence, which says: “Many of these emergency admissions could be avoided and people supported to manage their conditions outside hospital through the right combination of health and social care, as long as care is provided at the right time.”

Pharmacy organisations have pointed out that pharmacists are part of the solution to achieving this. National Pharmacy Association chief executive John D’Arcy said that the report underscores the need to ensure the best use of resources in managing long-term conditions and the role of pharmacists in doing that. This could be both by providing care services in the community and be helping to educate patients about managing their own conditions.

David Pruce, director of practice and quality improvement at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “The report underlines the core theme of last week’s Government [health] White Paper in highlighting the important role that primary care has to play in reducing hospital admissions. Community pharmacists are ideally placed to help patients manage their conditions at home and the challenge for Government will be to ensure that sufficient resources are available to support the new range of primary care services that will be required.”

One case study outlined in the report is of a 60-year-old man who, in 12 months, had 11 emergency admissions associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These admissions, taken with others in the preceding two years meant he had spent 231 days in hospital at an estimated cost of £25,680. Possible recommended solutions included regular medication reviews.

The report, prepared from an analysis of Department of Health admissions data, says that the most common cause of emergency admission is COPD, followed by angina, ear nose and throat infections, asthma and convulsions and epilepsy.