The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7477 p522
10 November 2007

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NPA training increases NHS Direct Wales pharmacy referrals

Referrals to community pharmacies from NHS Direct Wales have increased three-fold during the daytime and five-fold out-of-hours following a National Pharmacy Association training initiative.

The NPA arranged awareness training across three NHS Direct sites in Wales, beginning early this year. Most of the NHS Direct call handlers and nurses knew little about community pharmacy and the training sought to improve their understanding of the services pharmacies can provide. Following the training, the number of callers referred to community pharmacy by NHS Direct during the daytime increased by 731 a month to over 1,000, and out-of-hours increased by 90 patients to over 110 a month, the NPA says.

Steve Simmonds, the NPA’s NHS service development manager for Wales, points out that this increase will mean that pharmacies in Wales are likely to receive 10,000 more visits a year as a result of this initiative.