Dear Colleague,
Hello! We are PharmaDoctor, your pharmacist has just signed up to our service and I thought I
would write you a little introduction. My name is Mike, I’m a community pharmacist based in a
little chemist in North London. You may have noticed that your pharmacist has signed up to our
new Online Service. You should already be up and running and be seeing patients getting the
vaccines, other medicines or blood tests that they may need without a prescription.
NHS prescriptions will always be the bread and butter of
community pharmacy, however, one of the reasons why
your pharmacist has signed up to our service is that this
traditional model of pharmacy is changing, there is now a lot
less money in NHS prescriptions.
Pharmacists across the country are recognising this and are trying
to combat the lack of funding, negotiated by the PSNC, by
shifting their focus from NHS prescription and move more
towards services. For that, they need your help.
But what does “Services” mean?
Services mean pretty much anything NOT to do with retail or prescriptions. Services can either be
private (the patient has to pay) or funded by the NHS (the patient pays unless exempt). Examples
of these include:


Private services – Blood tests, Travel Clinics and PGDs*.
NHS services – Medicine Use Reviews (MURs), New Medicine Service (NMS), Influenza
vaccination, Minor Ailments and quite a few more, depending on local commissioning.
* A PGD stands for “Patient Group Direction” – don’t worry, it sounds confusing but it’s pretty
simple really. PharmaDoctor has the authority to train your pharmacist in how to safely assess a
patient to see if they are eligible to be supplied a prescription only medicine (POM), these include
things like Viagra, Anti-malarials (such as Malarone) and Hair Loss medicines. One the pharmacist
deems the patient safe, the patient can be given the medicine, without a prescription.
So how does it work?
Firstly, your pharmacist needs to be trained for each medicine online. They can do this free of
charge from the PharmaDoctor website and each training session takes 20 minutes up to an hour.
From here the pharmacist is authorised and can get started, but they need your help. The first thing
to know is the general procedures to follow, in general:
Patient comes in to
the pharmacy and
inquires about
medicine
Give the patient
the specific
medicine form
(RAF)
Give completed
form to
pharmacist
eScripts Marketing Limited | 65-69 Shepherds Bush Green, London W12 8TX
Telephone: 0208 762 0575 | Email: info@pharmadoctor.co.uk | Company Registration 6925143 | VAT Number 984 5526 76
Easy? Well the devil is in the details…
Print
Identify
Give
• Print the Specific Form (RAF) from PharmaDoctor.co.uk
• Identify patients and find out what they need
• Hand the patient the RAF and ask them to fill the form
Receive
• Wait until the patient has filled the form.
• The RAF must be complete before the next stage
Transfer
• Once the form is fully complete, hand the RAF to the
pharmacist
So how can I help?
The most important thing you can do to help your “lovely” pharmacist is to identify patients who
may need a medicine, so when talking to customers about the following topics remember:
 Holidays, cruises – Have they had their vaccinations? Have they thought about malaria? Do
they need travel goods like mosquito nets, first aid kits or diarrhoea medicines?
 Hair loss – a patient may come in to buy Regaine or Alpecin for hairloss, these can be used
in conjunction with a tablet called Propecia, which your pharmacist can supply.
 Erectile dysfunction – this is a delicate subject, however Durex have just released a new
erectile dysfunction condom which may lead to further conversations that need referral.
How to get started.
Get organised – each service has a different form, which you should print and put in a foldernear
the pharmacy counter.
Get an arch lever file
Get labeled inserts.
Print the forms.
eScripts Marketing Limited | 65-69 Shepherds Bush Green, London W12 8TX
Telephone: 0208 762 0575 | Email: info@pharmadoctor.co.uk | Company Registration 6925143 | VAT Number 984 5526 76
You can get these forms from the PharmaDoctor.co.uk website, there are 10 oral medicine PGD
services overall:










Emergency Hormonal Contraceptives (Morning After Pill): Levonelle, ellaOne
Erectile Dysfunction: Sildenafil, Tadalafil, Vardenafil
Malaria (for patients usually going outside Europe): Malarone, Doxycycline, Mefloquine
Weight Loss (for patients who are overweight): Orlistat
Asthma: Salbutamol 100mcg
Oral Contraception: You can now give out any contraceptive pill.
Quit Smoking (for patients who have failed with Nicotinell): Varenicline
Hair Loss: Finasteride 1mg
Period Delay (for women going on Muslim pilgrimage): Norethisterone
Travel Vaccines: All vaccines the patient needs to go on holiday
And there is one Risk Assessment Form for all of the blood test, tests the pharmacist can perform
include (among others):
 Hepatitis B immunity – this is useful for nurses and doctors.
 Syphilis – this is for sexual health screening.
 Lipids – this is useful for patients who are taking blood pressure/heart medicines.
 Iron status – for people who may have anaemia.
 Antimullerian hormone – for women who are looking to conceive.
 Vitamin D – for patients who are taking vitamin D.
 Omega 3/6 – patients trying to loose weight.
 Food intolerance – people who are worried that they are allergic to certain foods such as
nuts or dairy products.
 HbA1c – these tests are useful for people suffering from diabetes.
Your pharmacist can print these forms off for you, so you can put it into the counter file. You will
need to make sure all staff are aware of its location and how to use it.
There are also more general things that you can do. While it is only pharmacists who can train to
supply prescription only medicines (i.e. oral medicines and vaccines) other members of staff can
do blood tests on patients under the supervision of a pharmacist. All staff need to have a clear
understanding of what the travel clinic can offer. The key is to present the impression of an
organisation which is completely geared to providing the best health advice and treatment possible
to potential patients. This is not possible if patients are made to wait for one specific individual who
alone can advise patients on all aspects of the travel clinic. Having said this, ensure that your staff
members are aware of exactly what it is they are authorised to advise. General information on the
service is fine, but any specific medical advice should always be left to the authorised travel
clinician.
When a customer arrives, they should be greeted by a member of staff, not necessarily the
pharmacist. If the customer has an appointment or is sure they would like to complete a
consultation, they should be lead to a waiting area and given a risk assessment form to fill in and
pen (together with a clipboard if no table is available). This ensures the customer has something to
do straight away and is not left waiting.
The staff can also make cross sales, suggesting other products for the customer to consider, such as
eScripts Marketing Limited | 65-69 Shepherds Bush Green, London W12 8TX
Telephone: 0208 762 0575 | Email: info@pharmadoctor.co.uk | Company Registration 6925143 | VAT Number 984 5526 76
anti-histamines, vitamin tablets, water purifying tablets etc., depending on the patient’s destination.
Staff should be trained to make potential travel clinic customers aware of the service and the
vaccinations available, particularly those who look to be going on holiday, buying sunglasses, sun
cream, etc. They should also ensure they enclose flyers advertising the travel clinic in bags when
customers take their medications away. All staff should be aware of the prices of vaccinations
should they receive enquiries.
A basic knowledge across the board of the services available under the travel clinic will guarantee
customer satisfaction and maximise the opportunity of sales.
eScripts Marketing Limited | 65-69 Shepherds Bush Green, London W12 8TX
Telephone: 0208 762 0575 | Email: info@pharmadoctor.co.uk | Company Registration 6925143 | VAT Number 984 5526 76