How Medacy are supporting practices during COVID 19
The Coronavirus pandemic has been a massive learning curve for all of us in healthcare and has presented a huge number of challenges. In the midst of these torrid times there is still fantastic work going on. In this article, I want to share some of the work Medacy is involved with – I hope it will inspire!
I have been so impressed by how General Practice has responded to the need for changes in patient care and also how practices/PCNs and CCGS have reached out to embrace projects which will really make a difference.Â
Below is an overview of 3 projects we have been involved with which I hope you will find interesting:
Warfarin to NOAC switches – BUCKS Trust and individual practices across the UK.
#improving safety
Medacy recognised early on in the pandemic that INR testing was surely going to be a high-risk activity which could not be carried out within the social distancing rules. We were not alone in our thought process and within a couple of days of lock-down we had a Healthcare Trust looking for territory wide support for a warfarin to NOAC switch. A week later and we had a team of anticoagulant trained clinical pharmacists working remotely under a CCG protocol and detailed SOP, developed especially for the project. Patients are being prioritised by risk and suitable candidates switched to the CCG and practice formulary choices of NOAC. Consultations are carried out over the phone and the patients counselled fully according to the national guidelines.Â
Of course, Medacy are also supporting numerous individual practices in this activity. Each practice has made individual formulary decisions regarding first and second line NOAC choices and the details are incorporated into the project documents and one of the pharmacist team is allocated to the practice.Â
Initiating or expanding eRD
#Saving time #increasing efficiency #improving patient safety
You will be aware from recent communications that primary care is being asked to increase the use of eRD (electronic repeat dispensing), in suitable patients, as part of the pandemic response. Makes complete sense not only in the short term but in the long term also.Â
Medacy is supporting this initiative by supplying remote pharmacist support to carry out the work efficiently and safely via a trained remote team familiar with this process.
How does it work? Well the NHSBSA will identify patients who may be appropriate to transfer to eRD by creating individual practice lists of NHS patient numbers identified from their dispensing information to be suitable for eRD. Once this data is to hand, the appointed Medacy pharmacist can review patients who have received the same 1,2 or 3 medications for the last 12 months of dispensing (up to Jan 20) and where appropriate move patients to eRD.Â
Increasing eRD has the following benefits in the current situation:
- Reducing footfall to your practice and to the community pharmacy, supporting social distancing.
- Reducing workload for prescribers allowing better prioritisation of resources.
- Controlled management of the supply chain reducing the number of temporarily unavailable medicines.
 In a dispensing practice this change only relates to your non-dispensing cohort of patients but even so the Medacy service should result in around 70% of those patients receiving their medications in this way. The impact on repeat prescription handling is massive!
https://www.medacy.co.uk/2020/04/10/how-medacy-can-help-no-1-setting-up-erd-for-gp-practices/
Remote Practice Support via Medacy Remote
#Responding quickly to practice needs #Increasing access #Increasing patient safety
During the progress of the pandemic, some practices have been left with a bare skeleton of clinical staff when Coronavirus strikes. Sometimes two, three or more clinicians have had to self- isolate at the same time leaving the practice desperately short of hands. In these instances, Medacy have been able to step up, with clinical pharmacist support from our team of experienced practice pharmacists.
We have been supporting practices across the country carrying out key tasks such as medication reviews and re-authorisation of medications, clinical documentation processing and telephone consultations with patients working to support specific practice needs according to bespoke protocols.
For instance, we have a team supporting DMARD patients for practices, in cooperation with local secondary care teams to ensure patients are managed and monitored sensibly and safely.Â
Another team are calling shielding patients to discuss their medical needs and check they are safe and well.
https://www.medacy.co.uk/2020/04/24/emergency-support-for-gp-practices-how-medacy-can-help-4/
https://www.medacy.co.uk/2020/04/16/how-medacy-can-help-3-medacy-clinical-hubs/
Whilst we wish the pandemic speedily on its way we are grateful for the upsurge in collaboration and willingness to adopt behaviour change and hope it is here to stay.
For further information on any of our projects or to discuss your own requirements please contact Medacy on 01677 252205 or Caroline@medacy.co.uk
