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In this fourth episode of our short series on pharmacy and PCNs, Ben talks to Community Pharmacist Hala Abusin about the impact of the planned increase in pharmacists in general practice. They discuss the role and value of community pharmacy and the opportunities and challenges for community pharmacists collaborating with both GP pharmacists and hospital pharmacists.

Hala describes her progress to her current position (0:48)

The role of and value of community pharmacy (2:14)

Extending the role of community pharmacy – a practical example (3:34)

Community pharmacy view of pharmacists in general practice (6:37)

Sharing new ways of working (7:44)

The new five year contract for community pharmacy (8:17)

Community pharmacies working with PCNs (9:47)

Engaging community pharmacists (10:44)

Preparing to work with PCNs (11:41)

Pharmacists working together across organisations (13:23)

The differences between clinical and community pharmacists (14:09)

The challenges of collaboration (15:28)

The Community Pharmacy Consultation Service and other opportunities where community pharmacies can help (17:22)

Finding out more (18:43)

The challenge of the 30% funding gap (19:42)

Planning to build a team of pharmacists (20:50)

The relationship between GP and community pharmacists (22:27)

Finding out more (23:39)

Hala has provided some useful links for those looking for more information:

Details about the Joint Pain Advice project are available here and here

The Primary Care Pharmacy Network briefing on PCNs for pharmacists can be downloaded here

The PSNC guidance for supporting community pharmacists to engage with PCNs can be downloaded here

An article from Chemist and Druggist on the opportunity for community pharmacy in PCNs is available here

And the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework can be downloaded here

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This is the third in our short series of podcasts on Pharmacists and PCNs. In this episode Ben talks to Paul Deffley, a GP partner in Hove who is also a Clinical Director of Practice Unbound, a not-for-profit organisation based in Brighton which aims to help general practice “work smarter”. Paul has considerable experience of working with pharmacists and introducing them into networks of practices. He explains the three key steps practices should take to successfully implement a pharmacist and discusses the challenges for them working across multiple practices.

Show Notes

Paul explains what Practice Unbound is (0:56)

Paul is also the clinical champion for GP workload at the RCGP (1:43)

The outcomes of Paul’s work on workload (2:49)

Paul’s experience of working with pharmacists (3:13)

A new pharmacy-led service (4:09)

Building pharmacists into the team (5:09)

Logistics – induction and starting work (6:00)

Activity – work and workload (7:17)

Impact – transition, managing uncertainty and measurement (8:50)

Variation of impact and visibility (11:45)

Developing the data dashboard (13:45)

The challenge of working across multiple practices (14:24)

Introducing the pharmacist (15:58)

The issues of using a “host” practice model (18:05)

The challenge of the 30% funding gap (19:42)

Planning to build a team of pharmacists (20:50)

The relationship between GP and community pharmacists (22:27)

Finding out more (23:39)

Resources are available on the Practice Unbound website here

You can sign up to the Practice Unbound Newsletter here

Paul is on Twitter @deffley_paul

He is also on LinkedIn:

The Practice Unbound Twitter handle is @PracticeUnbound

The previous episode Ben mentioned with Paul’s colleague Jonathan Serjeant on delegating clinical correspondence is available here

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This is the second in our short series of podcasts on Pharmacists and PCNs and this week we talk to Peterborough GP, Neil Modha. Neil (who’s innovative approach we covered in this previous episode) has gone from employing one to three pharmacists in just over a year. He explains why and how they have proven invaluable in everything from self-care, shared care drug monitoring and document management to audits and chronic disease management.

Neil reminds us how his practice operates (0:44)

From one to three pharmacists – how they help (1:39)

The journey of introducing a pharmacist (2:32)

What are pharmacists doing in Neil’s practice (3:41)

Pharmacists and self-care prescribing (4:19)

The outcome of self-care prescribing (5:10)

Signposting to self-manage conditions (6:08)

Shared care drug monitoring (6:50)

How the rapid growth in pharmacists took place (7:50)

The impact on the practice (9:16)

How productive are pharmacists? (10:23)

The financial benefits (11:54)

Impact on the drug budget (12:53)

A vision for the future (13:23)

How does the pharmacist work in the federation/PCN? (14:36)

“Home” practice or not? (16:23)

Advice for other practices thinking of employing a pharmacist (16:59)

The challenge of the 30% gap in funding (18:06)

What’s next for Neil’s practice? (19:12)

What’s next for Neil’s practice? (21:35)

Neil’s practice website can be found here

His email address is neil.modha1@nhs.net

Our previous podcast with Neil is available on our website here