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Thank you for providing the Pharmacy First Service. We know how hard our pharmacy teams are working to deliver this service with many of you telling us that you want to do more! A common theme however is the low number of referrals being received despite many of you regularly seeing prescriptions for items which could have been supplied under Pharmacy First (e.g. prescriptions for nitrofurantoin for a female aged between 16 and 64).
The CPWY team has been working hard to engage GP practices with Pharmacy First and tackle some of the common misconceptions about the service. There are some great local examples of collaborative working between surgeries and pharmacies which have made a big impact on increasing patient access. One such example is where a pharmacy has implemented regular feedback reports for a local practice to highlight the number of Pharmacy First referrals the practice has sent; how many were completed and how much practice time this has saved.
These “top tips" from a GP in Leeds succinctly reflect some good practice points to help support integration of Pharmacy First:
- Invest time in developing relationships with your local GP practice team, including reception staff.
- Use data to show the value your pharmacy can add with pharmacy services to improve patient access and release GP practice time.
- Actively seek feedback on patient escalations back to the practice to improve clinical confidence, maintain open dialogue for continuous professional development and enhance clinical decision-making.
On the back of feedback received, CPWY has developed a new resource, the “Pharmacy First Referral Feedback Report” - see below. The template report has been designed to support communication between local pharmacy teams and GP practices, and we would encourage all our pharmacy teams to use this resource to promote Pharmacy First and engage local practices with the service.
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