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Should every GP practice have an in-house pharmacist dedicated to patient safety?

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Yes, it would help reduce prescribing errors, improve adherence and reduce waste
87% (114 votes)
No, community pharmacists already carry out this role
13% (17 votes)
Total votes: 131
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Fri, 11/05/2012 - 08:47 – Leila Taheri

GPs need support

In response to research that reveals that one in every 20 prescriptions written by a GP contains a mistake, President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Martin Astbury said prescribing errors could be halved if GPs introduced an in-house, pharmacist-led support scheme.

He said: "The NHS spends around £8.8bn on medicines prescribed mainly by GPs in England each year. We must do more to maximise the benefits of that investment. We are calling for every GP practice to have a pharmacist on the premises dedicated to patient safety."

Or maybe pharmacists should take over routine prescribing altogether?

Is there really a future for a pharmacist in every GP practice?

Leila Taheri

PJ Online team

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Fri, 11/05/2012 - 19:37 – Paul Tymon

Pharmacists in GP surgeries

I currently work very closely with a local GP practice and feel we should be working closely with GPs to improve patient care. I prefer to use words like "support" and "sharing skills" than blame words such as "errors" and "waste".
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Sun, 13/05/2012 - 09:35 – Samantha Ross

I agree with Paul soft

I agree with Paul soft skills are so important for building and maintaining these kind of relationships. No one likes making mistakes Doctors and Pharmacists alike. Soft skills make it an easier blow to take and the whole process isn't quite so dreaded by those involved. I think dispensing doctors would benefit the most from Pharmacist input. Furthermore once we've build up this relationship and GP's see how valuable we are, we're paving the way for commisioning future services.
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Tue, 15/05/2012 - 08:22 – stephen jeffers

PJ Editorial

Would the editorial team of the PJ please at least understand what community pharmacy does? The latest editorial favouring GP practice based pharmacies over community pharmacies and hints that these posts could be paid for by moving MUR funding is a total joke. Practice based pharmacists are a good idea and yes they would assist our GP colleagues. However to prpose taking funding away from community pharmacies shows a total lack of understanding about what community pharmacies actually do. Yes some MUR's are done to reach targets and "some" pharmacists abuse the system but thousands of patients have benefited from the MUR service when performed professionally by community pharmacists. Targeted MUR's are a step towards improving MUR standards and we should aim to improve the MUR service not scrap it. MUR's and NMS are the first steps nationally towards a clinical approach by community pharmacists and our "leaders" in the RPS and PJ hint that we are no good at it. Great work RPS, real leadership on behalf of the majority of pharmacist. i.e. Those that strive to offer a professional clinical service via community pharmacies.
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Wed, 16/05/2012 - 10:11 – David Kent

Pharmacists in GP surgeries

I cannot understand why anybody would disagree that this is a good initiative. We curently have an oversupply of pharmacists and consequently abysmally low rates of remuneration. for as long as I can remember the issue of poor prescribing prformane by GPs has been an issue but the opinionsof this profesion have been ignored. Now that the GPs representative body has itself raised the issue it is suddenly of importance. Pharmecist support in the GP surgery is undoubtedly the correct way to go; not only to reduce Rx errors but also to introduce informed opinion to the prescribing process.
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Sun, 20/05/2012 - 21:37 – Kazeem Olalekan

An insightful idea

In this climate of multidisciplinary working, it makes perfect sense to allow a pharmacist to be integrated into a GP Practice. There is the well rehearsed medicines safety, errors and waste reduction angle. Most importantly for me, it is the role as a bridge and a single point of contact between the different community pharmacists and the surgery that is most appealing. The surgery team will also find such a role to be quite appealing as they can direct any queries to the on-site pharmacist.

When MUR was introduced and I was concerned about potential problems with engaging with my then GP, I asked the practice-based PCT pharmacist to facilitate a meeting. It worked and the outcome was positive.

There will always be the fear about how constructive and even-handed a practice-based pharmacist will be when engaging with community pharmacist colleagues. Will they simply be a voice for disseminating the views of the practice or will their job-specification explicitly include fostering a climate of engagement with all care providers (as it relates to medicines) within that locality. These are just fears and must be treated as such (In most likelihood, they will have no factual basis).

A pharmacist appointed in that role must be knowledgeable, diplomatic and outcome focussed. They must also be willing to par-take and initiate quality medicines-related practice research. Whao, this could be really exciting. I am sure a number of pharmacist will comfortably fill this role.

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Thu, 24/05/2012 - 11:06 – David Rowlands

Pharmacists in GP practices

Having been a Practice Based Pharmacist for the last 10 years as well as a community locum, I would say that there is so much more a Practice based Pharmacist can offer over and above a community Pharmacist. Being constantly on hand to the whole practice - Doctors, nurses, trainess, reception staff etc is an immense help to the practice - not only for clinical input / governance/ safety aspects /training but also to help reduce NHS costs- and this can often mean working with 'backroom' staff. I am also a permanent link with the local Community Pharmacists and Hospital. Weekly attendance at practice meetings is also very valuable. Full access to patient records is also essential in order to be fully utilised - not least as an Independant prescriber - I can immediately ammend and generate prescriptions within my clinics to the immediate benefit of the patient.
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