Think Pharmacy
Sue Sharpe
CEO
PSNC
Outline of Talk
• The Vision for the future community
pharmacy
• The four domains for pharmacy services
Medicines Optimisation
Public Health
Minor Ailments
Supporting Independence
• The challenges
Our Vision
The community pharmacy service will offer
support to our communities, helping people to
optimise use of medicines to support their
health and care for acute and long-term
conditions, and providing individualised
information, advice and assistance to support
the public’s health and healthy living.
The Third Pillar
The Third Pillar – reducing
unnecessary GP appointments for
minor ailments
The Third Pillar - helping care
for patients with LTCs +
supporting independence
The Third Pillar - preventing
avoidable disease; promoting
healthy lifestyles
NHS Community
Pharmacy Services
2011-12
c900m items dispensed
Cost of medicines c£8bn
2.5m MURs
Ave pharmacy dispensed 6,700 items per
month
NHS income typically 85-95% total turnover
National and local
commissioning
• National contract includes dispensing, MURs,
NMS and at present public health campaigns
• Local supplementary services can meet
specific targets to reduce costs for CCGs
• Strong record of public health service
provision by pharmacies
The Four Domains
Medicines optimisation
Public Health
Minor ailments
Supporting independent living
Medicines Optimisation
Local services to supplement MURs and NMS
Domiciliary MURs Croydon
Medicines Optimisation
• Local services in Greater Manchester:
improving inhaler technique
• Outcomes: reduced spend – lower prescribing
of blue inhalers; lower need for additional
therapy; synchronising Rxs – lower waste +
• Improved patient outcomes – use of ACT +
CAT assessments
Medicines Optimisation
Respiratory MUR project in South Central (206
pharmacies)
• 40% of people with asthma showed better
asthma control
• 55% of COPD patients showed an improvement in
symptom management
• Analysis of data on emergency asthma and COPD
admissions showed a positive association
between the introduction of the project and
changes in emergency hospital admissions
Public Health – Pharmacy
services
• Services for drug misusers: supervised selfadministration; Needle + Syringe Programmes
• Sexual Health services: EHC; contraception;
safe sex advice
• Alcohol, obesity, healthy lifestyles advice
• Smoking cessation
• Vaccination and screening e.g NHS Health
Check
Minor ailments
Working to reduce unnecessary use of GP and
A+E services.
Potential savings to the NHS – estimates
3 year projections – shift from A+E, Walk-in
centres + GP surgeries
Shift
20%
35%
50%
Saving
£83m
£210m
£321m
Minor ailments
• CCG Rotherham figures – estimated
Population
24,800
Consultations
1400000
Top 5 Minor ailments
Back pain
Dermatitis
Heartburn/ indigestion
Nasal Congestion
Constipation
Minor Ailments MA alone
252000
227000
Annual consultations
8.4m
6.8m
6.8m
5.3m
4.3m
Supporting Independence
Working to support independent living:
• Home delivery of medicines
• Monitored dose dispensing systems
• Falls risk screening and advice
• Supply of aids
• Identifying emerging problems
The Principal Challenges
• Establishing partnership working with GPs and
local authorities
• Identifying where pharmacies can help manage
workload and costs
• Ensuring agreement on effective and relevant
communication
• Outcomes- based service commissioning –
monitoring outcomes and impact
