The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7436 p101
27 January 2007

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Pharmacy opens doors to GP services

Next week, Poole NHS Healthcare Centre opens its doors to patients — inside a Boots store. The local primary care trust says that people in Poole will now have more say about where they receive care. Matthew Wright (on the staff of The Journal) looks at how the pharmacy became a PCT's landlord and what services are on offer

The 2006 White Paper “Our health, our care, our say” challenged health care providers to make services more accessible and improve patient choice. Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust aims to do just that. On Monday, the first patient will be seen at Poole NHS Healthcare Centre, which is located on the first floor of a Boots store in the Dolphin Shopping Centre, in the heart of the town.

The arrangement

Garwyn Morris, Boots area pharmacy manager for Wessex, Hampshire and the Channel Islands, liaised with the PCT throughout the planning stages. He explains that the Boots pharmacy had some floor space that was not in use and that the PCT was in need of space. Boots entered into discussions with the PCT to see what could be provided to the community and how it might work.

“Now that we have supported the idea, sorted out the space for them and it is all up and running, we are purely the landlords,” explains Mr Morris. “We have no direct dealings with the patients, the surgery and the other services that are there — it is a standard NHS operation. However, there are obviously benefits with regards to driving footfall into the store, and for positioning the pharmacy as an expert centre for people to receive all types of healthcare advice, information and care.”

Patients enter through the front door of the pharmacy and Boots has fitted “customer journey signage”, clearly labelled as NHS, to show them where to go, says Mr Morris.

Rob Payne, service improvement manager at the PCT and project manager for the centre, elaborates: “In the first phase, patients will be coming to the health care centre by appointment; in the future we may look to other services being available on a walk-in basis.” It is hoped that patients will use this as a one-stop health care centre, he says. “We’ve got a joint patient leaflet that has been agreed between Boots and the NHS Healthcare Centre outlining how the health centre works and the services that are provided there,” Mr Payne adds.

Services

The PCT surveyed patients and members of the public through GP surgeries and the Borough of Poole to identify local health needs and where patients would like improved access to services. From the surveys the PCT was able to identify some of the services that are now being provided at the health care centre, Mr Payne says. The services offered by the centre are listed in Panel 1.

The centre houses a “branch surgery” of a medical centre, with GP and nurse practitioner services available Monday to Friday (during the working hours of the store). Patients make an appointment through the main GP surgery, but go to the new centre for their appointment, Mr Payne explains. “We will be exploring the opportunities to provide services in extended hours in the future,” he says.

The PCT recognises that physiotherapy is a service that should be provided in primary care, Mr Payne says. GPs will be able to choose whether to refer to a physiotherapist at the health care centre or at the local hospital, depending on the patient’s preference, he points out. “Linked to that is an acute back pain service providing classes for people to look after their backs,” he says.

Mr Payne also recognises the professional role of pharmacists: “We are well aware that a lot of patients do go direct to pharmacies for information and advice around their health needs, so we are hoping that [Boots and the PCT] can both benefit from working together on identifying those health needs and being more responsive to those as well.”

Mr Morris says that the arrangement is a good opportunity to show how pharmacy could be at the heart of total health provision in the community and how well located services can benefit the patient.

Building partnerships

Mr Payne says that, although the services will be provided by NHS staff working in the centre, the PCT is committed to building on the relationship with pharmacy. The PCT and Boots “are seeing this as a way to inform future developments not only locally but potentially nationally as well”, he points out.

The arrangement supports the Government’s vision of trying to encourage more care to be available closer to patients’ homes and outside hospital, Mr Payne says. Some of the PCT’s aims are listed in Panel 2.

Another positive development has been around providing an “urgent response” service to the public, Mr Payne says. “We have got sponsorship from the NHS nationally to provide a defibrillator for resuscitation. We are jointly training pharmacy and NHS health care centre staff in being able to respond to public emergencies in the Dolphin Centre — it is the first time this provision will be available in the centre. The defibrillator will be sited at the Boots store,” he explains.

Mr Morris says: “I think it is an exciting opportunity to have links with the NHS and look at ways of delivering pharmacy services in the future, but we have no idea what that might look like. It has been great working with the PCT, but how we will link pharmacy into it with future roles (for example, supplementary prescribing) I just don’t know. However, it does show that there is potentially a place for pharmacy to house NHS services, given its accessible, convenient position on the high street.”