Medicines Management
Issue no 4, p4
July/August 2002

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Patients welcome pharmacy-based bone screening

Patients at risk of osteoporosis are being screened for the condition by a community pharmacy as part of a pilot to test the acceptability of the service among patients and GPs.

GPs and patients have welcomed the screening service, and the pharmacist who devised the pilot, Barking and Havering LPC secretary Hemant Patel, said he hoped it could be rolled out to other pharmacies in the area.

Patients were recruited via three methods, including information provided by local GP surgeries, a large window display at the pharmacy which offered the service, and through counter assistants who suggested that people filled out a risk assessment form.

Patients taking oral steroids were also identified from medication records held at the pharmacy and invited to take part. The pilot ran for a month from a single pharmacy.

Mr Patel said that the pilot had undoubtedly improved access to NHS services. Of 239 patients who completed the risk assessment form, 179 were invited for screening at the pharmacy. In all, 36 had confirmed osteoporosis and 47 had osteopenia. Patients with osteoporosis were then referred to their GP for a prescription for risedronate — the medicine agreed by local clinical consensus to be most appropriate.

Risk assessment, screening and information was all provided from the community pharmacy. Although it had been intended to prescribe risedronate under a patient group direction as part of the pilot, this was not agreed in time for the study. But Mr Patel said he hoped this would happen if the service was rolled out across the PCT.

Qualitative analysis showed that patients found the service highly acceptable, and 94 per cent rated the value of screening at 4 or 5 on a five-point scale.

And 83 per cent of patients rated the overall efficiency of the scheme at nine or 10 on a 10-point scale. Three-quarters of the patients rated the advice given as extremely good or good.

"The most interesting aspect of the pilot was the level of acceptability among patients and support from GPs about the service," said Mr Patel. "These two aspects taken together mean that the pilot really worked in my opinion," he added.

Mr Patel said that although the pharmacist carrying out the screening had been adequately remunerated for providing the service, a proper fee would have still to be negotiated if the service was extended.