Exploring the integration of pharmacist independent prescribing for common clinical conditions within community pharmacy
Laura Karim, Robert Gordon University
Pharmacy First Plus is a new Scottish Government-funded service where pharmacist prescribers working in community pharmacies treat patients with a range of common clinical conditions such as ear, chest, and urinary infections. Currently the service is provided in approximately 200 community pharmacies throughout Scotland; it is hoped that in time the service will be available in every community pharmacy in Scotland.
The aims of the service are to improve access to advice and treatment by offering these at the most appropriate point, so reducing pressure on GPs and out of hours services at the same time making optimal use of community pharmacist prescribers’ skills.
It is important that this new service is researched so that its development may be based on evidence including of what works, how, and areas for further development. The main aim of this programme of work is to explore how pharmacist prescribing works within community pharmacy. The programme is planned in three phases and to date, two phases have been completed, funded through the Scottish Pharmacist Clinical Academic Fellowship scheme.
The first two phases were informed by a school patient and public involvement workshop in relation to the development of teaching and research initiatives into provision of services by pharmacist prescribers. This helped inform the development of research questions and proposed methods. Recently secured PPI funding from RGU will be used for further PPI engagement to present and discuss findings from phases 1 and 2 and plan for the final 3rd phase.
The first phase of the research was a literature review of the available evidence of pharmacist prescribing within the community pharmacy setting. The next phase used an online survey of pharmacists offering the Pharmacy First Plus service followed by interviews and focus groups with volunteers from among participants in the survey.
This funding application will be used for the final phase of the work which will use a case study method focusing on between five and eight community pharmacies offering the Pharmacy First Plus service. Building on the results of the first two phases, the aim will be to explore in greater detail the operational, teamworking and process aspects of the service.
The abstract is available to view here and the final report is available here.
