We’re all part of the same NHS family

I am a proud, fourth generation, community pharmacist. And at the same time an enthusiastic member of the NHS team in Cornwall, the county in which I have practised for many years.

During my career, I have worked across numerous primary care settings, including sessionally at GP surgeries.

Since it was introduced in 2019, the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) has grown considerably in scale - allowing GP surgeries to add to their capacity and think creatively about skill mix. Under the scheme, pharmacists have helped to manage practice workload, taken over long-term conditions clinics and sought to reduce medicines waste.  There are over 7,000 pharmacists employed through ARRS and they are frequently cited as the most useful role in the scheme by GPs and clinical directors.

From the point of view of community pharmacy owners, the observation is frequently made that ARRS involves GP practices and community pharmacies fishing in the same pond for skilled professionals. They point out that the scheme makes sense only where it adds capacity to the primary care system overall, not stripping capacity from other community settings.

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Other arenas where GPs and community pharmacists sometimes experience friction include the winter flu vaccination campaign, medicines shortages and the recent confused roll out of the covid vaccine via the National Booking System.

Thankfully, in most places, there is close collaboration between professionals, with everyone’s eyes firmly fixed on the needs of patients.

In my own experience, it is sometimes the simple things that can most build trust and enable seamless care.  For example local WhatsApp groups for out-of-stock medicines and community pharmacy colleagues attending surgery training sessions.

It’s been said that collaboration was reinforced during the covid pandemic, which threw all of us together to support our patients. Silo-working would not have been viable, or in any way justifiable, in the face of such a crisis.

Cast forward to today, and NHS services like Pharmacy First give us all an opportunity to help one another manage workload and ensure our patients get the care they need, from the right professional and at the right time.

What’s more, independent pharmacist prescribing has the potential to boost the role of pharmacists in a way that will benefit all, including our under-pressure GPs.

The NHS 10 Year Plan for England set a clear steer about shifting care out of hospitals and that presents a huge challenge and opportunity for all professionals and providers in the primary care sphere.

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‘Patient-centred care’ is now such a well-worn term that it is easy to disregard it as a cliché. However, it remains an important ideal that health services should be responsive to patient need, and seamless from the patient’s point of view.

That’s what’s driving the Community Pharmacy and General Practice Conference being organised jointly by Cogora, publishers of The Pharmacist, and the National Pharmacy Association, of which I’m the immediate past Chair.

We hope it will act as a springboard for patient centred cooperation, with positive and long-lasting consequences across the UK.

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