Agilio Software’s Lead Pharmacist and Deputy Editor of NICE CKS, Ross Ferguson, discusses the challenging time community pharmacists have experienced and the recent launch of Pharmacy First.
Community pharmacy always rises to meet challenges (there has been no shortage of these recently) and deliver for their patients.
The launch of Pharmacy First has been no exception. Announced in May last year, and initially planned to be online before the end of 2023, it was always going to be ambitious, given that it would be necessary to develop 24 PGDs and 7 clinical pathways through a comprehensive consultation and review process with stakeholders. Not to mention the essential IT developments.
So, when the PGDs and pathways were published at the busiest time of year for pharmacy and launch planned for the end of January, I really felt for my fellow pharmacists and their teams. While NHS England did not mandate any specific training for pharmacists to deliver the service, they did produce a self-assessment framework to help identify gaps in knowledge. Time for pharmacists to address these gaps, attend face-to-face clinical skills training courses, and get their teams up to speed was very limited.
As expert clinical authors who produce NICE CKS (on which the pathways are largely based) and 100s of e-learning courses for GPs we at Agilio saw an opportunity to support pharmacists and developed 7 free courses aligned to the pathway and protocols, available here.
Looking at the numbers: pharmacies signed up to the service, consultations delivered, and pharmacists who have completed our Pharmacy First e-learning courses, community pharmacy has met these challenges and the tight timeframes.
But I do worry, as this is something that we need to get right. We know that talking to patients, assessing signs and symptoms, and recommending treatments is something we do daily; this new service will be under scrutiny from all quarters, be in no doubt. We need to deliver for patients and the NHS to ensure common conditions are managed appropriately and help reduce pressure on GP services.
There is however a careful balance to achieve – community pharmacy falling on either side will be an open target. You can imagine the headlines if pharmacy fails to deliver enough consultations, if too many antibiotics are supplied, if red flags are missed, if too many referrals are made to GP practices, or if there is no overall positive impact on GP appointments.
I see this as a particularly important step for community pharmacy in England, success could launch us into a new and exciting future.
There are many elements which are key to creating that success, but number one has to be a strong foundation of clinical knowledge and skills and keeping those up to date (something the GPhC has also emphasized). As always, we are lucky in pharmacy, there is a lot of support available, so it’s important to make the most of it.
Agilio Software has developed free Pharmacy First courses, you can register here.