Paydens – which operates 128 pharmacies across the south-east of England – has partnered with the charity to roll out a Parkinson’s-specific MUR, which could then be replicated in other pharmacies across England, Parkinson’s UK said.

Paydens managing director Alexander Pay said the rollout of the MUR across the chain is “still in the planning stages”, but he hopes it will be “up and running in June”.

“Ten of our pharmacists will be trained as champions, and get deeper training in Parkinson’s and on the MUR,” Mr Pay told C+D last week (April 25).

These pharmacists will then “work to provide the MUR to as many [Parkinson's disease] patients in their store as possible”, as well as provide the service in other Paydens branches, he added.

Expanding beyond Paydens

Mr Pay said one of the aims of the charity partnership – which also includes a pledge for the chain to fundraise £100,000 over the next 12 months – is to show the NHS and “local clinical commissioning groups the benefit [of] working closely with pharmacy and with pharmacists on long-term condition management”.

The ultimate aim is to “try and get this service promoted as a national service”, he added.

Daiga Heisters, from Parkinson’s UK, said the evidence collected from Paydens’ “bespoke” MUR model will be used to approach “other pharmacy groups”, and ask them: “‘are you interested in working with us?’”.

Parkinson’s UK will measure data from the MURs, “to see if there’s enough footfall through community pharmacy by people who are affected by Parkinson’s” to show that “this is a viable thing to do”, Ms Heisters told C+D yesterday (May 1).

“I think there is real power in [this partnership] because of the buy-in from the leadership team,” she added.

“[I’m interested to see] how the work that we do with Paydens can help us reach out to other community pharmacy groups.”

“Inspired” by RPS local pharmacy forum

Parkinson’s UK told C+D that its Paydens’ MUR rollout had been "inspired by and adapted from previous MUR work" by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society local pharmacy forum for north-west London, led by community pharmacist Stephanie Bancroft.

In January, Ms Bancroft told C+D she had worked with the charity to develop and test an MUR toolkit on 32 Parkinson’s patients in 2016, before rolling it out to 29 pharmacists across the UK.

Ms Bancroft said she is “delighted” that the work the forum undertook has “inspired and motivated” Paydens to introduce the MUR across its branches.

“We hope that the data they collect will provide further evidence which supports the role of community pharmacists in improving outcomes for Parkinson’s patients,” Ms Bancroft added.

Listen to Ms Bancroft explain community pharmacy's role in supporting patients with Parkinson's: