Employing an independent pharmacist prescriber for eight hours a week could save GP practices almost £15,000 a year, a primary care provider has claimed.

Durham-based IntraHealth, which operates a UK-wide network of pharmacies and GP surgeries, said data from one surgery showed that a pharmacist employed there had made between three and 12 recommendations a month for patients to switch their medicine to a more cost-effective alternative.

The company estimated that these medicine switches would save the practice £14,500 a year, said IntraHealth practice pharmacist Hannah Jones in a report published last week (May 6).

IntraHealth runs a scheme employing six pharmacists across nine GP practices in the north-east of England. These pharmacists were employed for two four-hour sessions a week to deal with acute prescription requests, review hospital discharge letters and support any medicine-related queries, Ms Jones said.

Data gathered from one of the practices in Sunderland between September and February found that an average of 10 serious medicine-related harm incidents and four hospital admissions were prevented every month by employing a prescribing pharmacist, Ms Jones said in the report.

The independent pharmacist prescriber, Megan Blythe, made an average of 640 interventions a month at the surgery, during which she prescribed around 240 items, according to data in the report. Ms Blythe also assessed the suitability of the repeat medication requests she was assigned and signed these prescriptions when it was within her clinical competence, Ms Jones said.

Spotting cost issues

“Dealing with repeat and acute prescription requests takes up a vast amount of time in primary care. Pharmacist independent prescribers can streamline this process and are ideally placed to spot ongoing adherence or cost issues before they become chronic,” Ms Jones said.

Some tasks considered by practice staff to be difficult to solve – such as deciphering prescribing information on hospital discharge letters – were “bread and butter” to pharmacists, she stressed.

Ms Jones told C+D that she hoped the data would “support colleagues who have the independent prescriber qualification but are struggling to convince GPs that they are worth paying for,” Ms Jones added.

In March, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) issued a joint call with the Royal College of General Practitioners to employ an “army” of pharmacists in GP surgeries. RPS policy lead for England Heidi Wright told C+D on Monday (May 11) that IntraHealth’s report “sits alongside the many examples that demonstrate the value a practice pharmacist can bring as part of a multidisciplinary team”.

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