EXCLUSIVE

Leading GPs have expressed hope that the new medicine service (NMS) could lead to stronger relationships with pharmacists.  

NHS Alliance chair and GP Mike Dixon told C+D that he hoped the NMS would be a "Trojan horse" to allow the two professions to collaborate more often, following last week's positive evaluation of the service by Nottingham University (August 14).

Dr Dixon said the report was a "step in the right direction" but both professions would need to "repair the damage done" to their relationship in recent years if they were to make the NMS a success.

"[They] have been played off against each other and we need the pharmacist to be a team player. There needs to be quarterly or twice-yearly meetings between local pharmacists and GPs," Dr Dixon said.

The evaluation's authors suggested that a "triangular" relationship was needed between pharmacists, GPs and patients to optimise patients' medicines use,and British Medical Association prescribing lead and GP Bill Beeby said GPs had called for this relationship in the past. 

The NMS was one of the few areas where the professions could work effectively together, he told C+D, but it was difficult for GPs to build good relationships with every pharmacist in their area.

Dr Beeby said that the service had not been publicised to many GPs and it was possible some had not heard about the service. The evaluation agreed that GPs were "often" unaware of the NMS's existence.

The evaluation's authors concluded that the NMS significantly improved patient adherence and Dr Beeby agreed the service was a way to help patients "make sense" of medicine side effects.

"Anything that will keep patients on the right medication will help us. We tell patients why [a medicine] needs to be taken, but they need reinforcement," he said.

Richard West, chairman of the Dispensing Doctors' Association, told C+D that the NMS was particularly valuable for patients on multiple medicines, who found it useful for health professionals to explain their medicines to them in "slightly different ways".

It would be "sensible" to permanently commission the service as long as it only targeted patients who would benefit from it, Dr West stressed.

"There are groups of patients who really value it and there are groups who want to get their medication and get out of there. We need to construct the service for those who find it useful but don't make it an imposition on everybody," he added.

The evaluation found that GPs were "generally supportive" of the NMS but were "unclear" about how it would change the division of labour between the two professions. 

	Do you think the NMS could strengthen your relationship with local GPs?