Medicines Management
Issue no 3, p1-4
May/June 2002

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Pioneer pharmacists begin to provide new in-house services

AAH Pharmaceuticals has recruited two-thirds of the 25 community pharmacists it is seeking to take part in its pilot medicines management initiative, Vantage Health Watch.

The scheme, launched at the Vantage convention in South Africa in April, aims to provide training and support to pharmacists who want to expand the range of services to customers to incorporate medicines management. Although 25 pioneer pharmacists will pilot the first phase of the service, AAH said that it would later be rolled out nationwide.

Among the services that the successful pilot pharmacists will provide under Health Watch are blood pressure monitoring, diabetes risk assessment, prescription reviews, smoking cessation and medicines management for older customers.

Each of the 16 pharmacists who has been recruited so far will be expected to commit eight hours a week for consultations. They must also either hold a clinical diploma or have passed the medicines management module from the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education. AAH is also running additional training sessions for pharmacists starting the Health Watch scheme, and expects successful pharmacists to have good relationships with local GPs.

Mandeep Mudhar, marketing manager at AAH Pharmaceuticals, said that training for the first service, monitoring blood pressure, had begun, and that he would be visiting the pharmacists personally to see how they were finding the service.

"We will also be monitoring a range of indicators that we have developed, such as whether or not the pharmacist was uninterrupted during the consultations, and how satisfied patients are with the service they are receiving." He added that AAH would also be collecting data on the numbers of people who were requesting the service, and also their demographic characteristics.

Mr Mudhar said that eventually the aim was to collect enough data on the service to publish a written evaluation. "That's the aim, because we keep being told that unless pharmacists quantify what they are doing then they are unlikely to be paid for these services in the future," he added.

The aim of the Health Watch service was to provide pharmacists with the level of support required for them to establish effective medicines management schemes without them needing to be led by PCTs, said Mr Mudhar.