EXCLUSIVE

Pharmacists are unsure about the benefits of moving into expanded GP practices, as NHS England seeks volunteers to trial its new healthcare models.

The commissioning body first unveiled plans for pharmacists to work in large-scale primary care practices as one of a range of models of care set out in its Five Year Forward View document last year. NHS England allocated £200 million to fund the first wave of these models in 2015-16 and local organisations interested in taking part have until February 2 to express their interest, NHS England said last month (December 23).

The expanded practices proposed by NHS England could shift care out of hospitals by employing pharmacists alongside consultants and senior nurses. While some contractors welcomed the move in principle, others told C+D they needed more detail about how they would work in practice.

Nick Kaye, owner of Nick Kaye’s Pharmacy in Newquay, said he had worked in a health centre and had seen the value of having a “great clinical and professional relationship” with local GPs. But although it was a “good first step” for pharmacists to work in GP practices, Mr Kaye said he was worried it would result in pharmacists leaving their pharmacies to take on a primarily prescribing role.

Contractor Kieron Eason of Eason Pharmacy in Tamworth said locating pharmacies within surgeries “certainly seems to work very well” in principle, although surgeries were not always located in the deprived areas that most needed them. “[NHS England] is providing surgeries the money to relocate people into their practices, when really it should be surgeries moving into other areas,” he told C+D.

'A lot of confusion'

Mike Hewitson, owner of Abbey Pharmacy in Sherborne, said he was not aware of any areas considering the model proposed by NHS England. “There seems to be a lot of confusion about whether they mean clinical pharmacists working in an expanded primary care team or a practice where the pharmacy contractor offers the medicines supply role,” he told C+D.

Taking up the offer

However, Reena Barai, owner of SG Barai Chemist in Sutton, said using community pharmacists as practice support pharmacists was “a very workable model”. “There’s so many different things that could be done, from offering a triage system for appointments to medication reviews [and] overhauling repeat prescribing management,” she said.

David Branford, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS) English Pharmacy Board, said he would write to NHS England to volunteer to partner with them as they implemented the new models of care in the first cohort of sites.

“Local pharmacy leaders in hospitals, community, primary care and care home settings need to respond positively to NHS England’s call for first cohort sites, to ensure pharmacy is included,” he said.

A C+D poll last month revealed that 78 per cent of pharmacists felt the sector should "embrace opportunities" for closer collaboration with GPs, while 22 per cent believed working in general practice could undermine the sector's independence.