Guide highlights support NHS pharmacists can offer to commissioners
 What primary care pharmacists can do to support practice-based commissioners has been encapsulated in a guide launched by the Primary Care Pharmacists' Association and the NHS
Alliance this week.
“Prescribing support and pharmaceutical advice for practice-based commissioners — a guide for commissioning groups and GPs” highlights the contribution
pharmacists can make to patient care and practice budgets, from strategic
issues to patient-level support.
Shailen Rao, chairman of the PCPA, said: “Primary care pharmacists
are a valuable and, as yet, largely untapped resource within practice-based
commissioning [PBC]. The prescribing budget makes up a significant proportion
of the primary care budget and PBC provides an excellent opportunity
to further increase the quality of prescribing.”
He adds that, in the past, the medicines management agenda has been used
to drive forward service redesign and improvements via initiatives such
as prescribing incentive schemes and supporting the general medical services
contract.
“Forward-thinking PBC groups who take on the prescribing budget
and associated support from primary care pharmacists will be in a position
to direct
this valuable resource towards delivering their own priorities,” he
explained.
The guide is available free to NHS Alliance members (£10 for non-members)
by e-mailing office@nhsalliance.org
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader