During his visit to Hillview Surgery in Ealing, London last week (February 23), Mr Mowat learned more about the relationships between GPs and community pharmacists – as well as the role of practice pharmacists – said RPS English pharmacy board chair Sandra Gidley.

“The GPs in [that] surgery are very [supportive of] community pharmacists taking on a bigger workload,” said Ms Gidley, who was present at the visit.

“[They] actually said to David Mowat: 'We think community pharmacists could manage selected patients with long-term conditions.’ So that was a very positive message the minister took away,” Ms Gidley told C+D.

Countering the 'clinical pharmacist' confusion

According to Ms Gidley, Mr Mowat also “picked up on” the fact that she had not used the phrase “clinical pharmacists”.

“I turned around and said: ‘That’s because all pharmacists are clinical’,” she said on Monday (February 27).

Services at risk

As part of his two-and-a-half hour visit, Mr Mowat sat in on a diabetes consultation by a practice-based pharmacist.

“I was able to explain to him that some community pharmacists offer some of the services – diabetes tests for example,” Ms Gidley said.

“I wasn’t making a political point, but these were some of the services that might drop if pharmacies felt they had to look at their bottom line, because there’s less money coming in,” she added.

Watch Ms Gidley explain the benefits practice pharmacists can have for GPs – as well as for community pharmacists – below:

You can view a slideshow of images from Mr Mowat's visit here.