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.
Show Notes
Hala describes her progress to her current position (48secs)
The role of and value of community pharmacy (2min 14secs)
Extending the role of community pharmacy – a practical example (3mins 34secs)
Community pharmacy view of pharmacists in general practice (6mins 37secs)
Sharing new ways of working (7mins 44secs)
The new five year contract for community pharmacy (8mins 17secs)
Community pharmacies working with PCNs (9mins 47secs)
Engaging community pharmacists (10mins 44secs)
Preparing to work with PCNs (11mins 41secs)
Pharmacists working together across organisations (13mins 23secs)
The differences between clinical and community pharmacists (14mins 09secs)
The challenges of collaboration (15mins 28secs)
The Community Pharmacy Consultation Service and other opportunities where community pharmacies can help (17mins 22secs)
Finding out more (18mins 43secs)
The challenge of the 30% funding gap (19mins 42secs)
Planning to build a team of pharmacists (20mins 50secs)
The relationship between GP and community pharmacists (22mins 27secs)
Finding out more (23mins 39secs)
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
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 (56secs)
Paul is also the clinical champion for GP workload at the RCGP (1min 43secs)
The outcomes of Paul’s work on workload (2mins 49secs)
Paul’s experience of working with pharmacists (3mins 13secs)
A new pharmacy-led service (4mins 09secs)
Building pharmacists into the team (5mins 09secs)
Logistics – induction and starting work (6mins 00secs)
Activity – work and workload (7mins 17secs)
Impact – transition, managing uncertainty and measurement (8mins 50secs)
Variation of impact and visibility (11mins 45secs)
Developing the data dashboard (13mins 45secs)
The challenge of working across multiple practices (14mins 24secs)
Introducing the pharmacist (15mins 58secs)
The issues of using a “host” practice model (18mins 05secs)
The challenge of the 30% funding gap (19mins 42secs)
Planning to build a team of pharmacists (20mins 50secs)
The relationship between GP and community pharmacists (22mins 27secs)
Finding out more (23mins 39secs)
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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-deffley-17a7a8136/
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
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.
Show Notes
Neil reminds us how his practice operates (44secs)
From one to three pharmacists – how they help (1min 39secs)
The journey of introducing a pharmacist (2mins 32secs)
What are pharmacists doing in Neil’s practice (3mins 41secs)
Pharmacists and self-care prescribing (4mins 19secs)
The outcome of self-care prescribing (5mins 10secs)
Signposting to self-manage conditions (6mins 08secs)
Shared care drug monitoring (6mins 50secs)
How the rapid growth in pharmacists took place (7mins 50secs)
The impact on the practice (9mins 16secs)
How productive are pharmacists? (10mins 23secs)
The financial benefits (11mins 54secs)
Impact on the drug budget (12mins 53secs)
A vision for the future (13mins 23secs)
How does the pharmacist work in the federation/PCN? (14mins 36secs)
“Home” practice or not? (16mins 23secs)
Advice for other practices thinking of employing a pharmacist (16mins 59secs)
The challenge of the 30% gap in funding (18mins 06secs)
What’s next for Neil’s practice? (19mins 12secs)
What’s next for Neil’s practice? (21mins 35secs)
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
All PCNs have the opportunity to recruit clinical pharmacists into general practice and this week we begin a four part series of podcasts to support that recruitment. We begin, in Episode One, by talking to GP Pharmacist Hala Jawad. Hala discusses the role of a pharmacist within general practice, the way a pharmacist can work within a PCN and how a PCN can make themselves more attractive to pharmacists.
Show Notes
Hala was the first “Pharma Face” and is known as “The Brighton Titan” (55secs)
She moved from running a restaurant to becoming a pharmacist (2min 02secs)
Getting involved with general practice (2mins 47secs)
Trying GP out for a week (3mins 48secs)
The benefits of working in a practice (5mins 01secs)
Learning in general practice (6mins 31secs)
The role of a pharmacist in GP (7mins 32secs)
Support for pharmacists (8mins 30secs)
Pharmacists in PCNs (9mins 39secs)
Advice to make an appointment successful (10mins 41secs)
Overcoming isolation (11mins 51secs)
How attractive is working in GP to a pharmacist? (12mins 42secs)
What makes one role more attractive than another? (14mins 15secs)
How will the pharmacist/GP relationship develop? (15mins 51secs)
Contacting Hala (16mins 44secs)
Hala can be found on Twitter - @jawad_hala
She is also on Facebook and LinkedIn
Her Ask Hala public website is here and her You Tube channel is here