The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7480 p615
1 December 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Leeds needle exchange services scoop HSJ award

Revamped pharmacy needle exchange services in Leeds took home the prize for patient-centred care at this year's Health Services Journal awards, presented in London last week.

Leeds Primary Care Trust recognised the need to improve local needle exchange services that were sporadic and poorly used by injecting drug misusers, Mohammed Hussain, head of community pharmacy services at the PCT, explained.

The PCT sought the views of drug misusers and discovered that the choice of equipment offered in standard needle exchange packs did not meet their needs. Poor staff attitudes, lack of confidentiality and lack of easily accessible pharmacies offering the service were also identified as limiting factors.

Following a complete overhaul of the service — which included renegotiation of contractor payments — the number of pharmacies offering needle exchange has more than doubled as has the number of clients.

Unique to the service is the “What works?” form, which lists, in pictures and words, the pieces of injecting equipment and paraphernalia available. Drug misusers simply tick off what they wish the pharmacist to supply on that occasion and fill in some basic demographic information that allows the service to be audited.

Runner-up in the primary care innovation category of the awards was a “Heart MOT” service offered across three Birmingham primary care trusts. The pharmacy pilot — initiated in Lloydspharmacy sites throughout Birmingham and subsequently rolled out to independents with support from the multiple — aims to identify men in the local area who are at risk of cardiovascular disease and who are not in touch with primary care services.

Pharmacists examine patients’ cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, lifestyle and family history of heart disease and advise at-risk patients to see the doctor.