Pharmacy Voice has encouraged its members to get involved in NHS England’s drive to find new models of emergency care.

The commissioning body last week (June 3) called for submissions from health organisations willing to act as “vanguard sites” to “identify opportunities and tackle barriers” in how emergency care is delivered.

Pharmacy Voice chief executive Rob Darracott advised members to “take every opportunity to support and get involved” with the programme. Pharmacists should contact their LPC or clinical commissioning group (CCG) to find out about any applications in their area, he told C+D.

If community pharmacies decided to apply, it was likely to be as one part of a larger bid and they would need to “demonstrate an understanding of key local needs and priorities”, Mr Darracott said.

“Patient benefit and cost-effectiveness are of course key elements, but community pharmacy also needs to demonstrate that it is flexible to change and eager to drive new ways of working,” he said.
 

“Direct impact” on hospital admissions

Community pharmacy was an “essential part of out-of-hospital care”, as it could offer access to a qualified healthcare professional and provide urgent supplies of repeat medicines seven days a week, he said.

The sector's role increasing medicines adherence also had a “direct impact” on reducing hospital admissions, he stressed.

NHS England said the number of vanguard sites would depend on the “quality of bids, their scale and the ability to provide intensive support”. It hoped for one or two urgent and emergency care networks to take part in the programme, as well as smaller groups of commissioners and healthcare providers, it said.

It expected around five million people to be covered by the vanguard sites, which would be rolled out across the country over the next two years with the aid of "transformation funding", it added.

The call for applications is the latest phase of NHS England’s New Care Models programme, which has already resulted in three healthcare groups revealing plans to employ pharmacists in expanded GP practices.

Organisations interested in becoming an urgent and emergency care vanguard site have until July 15 to submit their application on the NHS England website.

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