NHS Estates: The Challenges Homing ARRS Funded Pharmacy Staff

ARRS funding has increased the number of clinical pharmacists in Primary Care

By March 2023, primary care had recruited around 10,000 pharmacy professionals through the contract DES using the available Additional Role Reimbursement Scheme (ARRs) funding. The target of recruiting 26,000 additional primary care staff by March 2024 was met a year early.

So, with all these new clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, where have primary care NHS estates housed these staff members? A survey conducted by PulsePCN showed that nearly 75% of respondents did not have adequate space to house their additional roles (ARRs) staff.

This may be a problem that many pharmacy staff or GP staff members reading this have faced and can sympathise with. 

Why are estates causing problems in the recruitment of ARRS clinical staff?

General practice estates are extremely expensive to maintain, and many have not seen development since their original construction. As the number of healthcare professionals required to support primary care grows, these buildings are bursting at the seams. 

I experienced this myself pre-COVID. I was working on-site and was allocated a desk in the tea room or, if lucky, a desk in the corner of reception to conduct my work. More recently, if I was working on-site, other staff had been shunted out of rooms to give me clinical space if I was scheduled to see patients face to face.

These inadequate spaces are not settings for patient-facing tasks or those that require telephone consultation with patients. They do not provide confidentiality, nor do they project a professional image if patients can hear general chit-chat going on in the background. This does not allow PCNs to make the most of their ARRs-funded staff, limiting the responsibilities that can be given to clinical pharmacists. 

General practice properties – a concern for confidentiality and safety

Concerns have been raised by some clinical pharmacists employed through the ARRs funding about some of these inappropriate workspaces. With expectations that they are to conduct phone calls to conduct medication reviews with patients in open-plan spaces. 

Every day, our teams of highly skilled and qualified clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians deal with medication-related queries, conduct in-depth medication reviews and identify opportunities to improve patient outcomes. We are capable and adept at specialist clinical tasks, like long-term condition optimisation or reducing the risk of patient harm. But, to make the most of the specialist skills of ARRs-employed clinical pharmacy teams, they need to be given the right working conditions to be effective. If this cannot be provided on-site, then remote services like those we offer at Medacy could provide a perfect solution.

How can remote clinical pharmacist services help?

While it’s unlikely a new wedge of cash is suddenly going to become available to PCNs and practices to update their estates, remote clinical services offer a flexible and environmentally friendly alternative to increase patient care.

The number of ‘clinical service incidents due to estate or infrastructure failures was thought to total 5348 in 2021/2022, with an increase in staff numbers under the ARRs since then, the need to reduce the burden on space has only increased.

ARRS funded roles, including clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, greatly improve patient access to care, ensuring that the right qualified healthcare professional is available to address the patient’s needs appropriately. In this current climate, many patients also recognise that GP services are stretched and, since COVID, it’s not always necessary to attend their GP surgery in person to get the help they need. 

So, increased patient awareness coupled with the immediate need for a solution on outdated estates presents PCNs and practices with the perfect opportunity to embrace a remote solution. 

Whilst primary care GP estates wait for necessary funding from any future government, in order to reduce the burden on space, they may wish to consider investing their ARRs funding in remote clinical services. 

Medacy’s remote clinical pharmacy services

Medacy has provided clinical support to GP Practices since 2015 and remote support for over five years. We are highly experienced and equipped to do this successfully. 

Each clinical employee is supplied with the necessary IT hardware to access their practice’s GP IT system securely. They are required to have a suitable working space set up in their home so that they are not disturbed and can speak confidentially with the patients from the practice or while liaising with the local community pharmacies or NHS hospital departments during the course of their clinical duties. They have a multi-pronged support network behind them to provide day-to-day clinical and practical advice.

A midsize car would normally generate 3.9 tons of CO2 emissions per year from the daily commute to work alone. With Medacy employees working from home, we estimate that we saved 312 tons of CO2 emissions last year.

From the first day our services start, we establish relationships with the practice and identify key clinicians to whom our clinical pharmacists can refer urgent patient cases. We also establish streams of communication to foster integration within the wider GP team. 

Our pharmacists and technicians are also supported by a large peer support network, receive induction into the company, and receive ongoing clinical supervision from our team of senior clinical pharmacists. Since our clinical teams are employed rather than being locums, we are able to provide full clinical oversight and ongoing development and support.

Remote pharmacy – the answer to housing your ARRs staff 

With an increase in newly employed clinical staff funded by ARRs, the strain on the NHS’s outdated estates has never been greater. Bringing in specialist pharmacists means giving them a way of working that provides a safe and confidential space to carry out patient consultations, medicine optimisation and long-term condition care. 

With no quick solution in sight to pay for improvements to physical estates, there is a real opportunity to embrace remote clinical services to improve patient care.

At Medacy, we have the answer by providing a remote pharmacy professional-led clinical service. Our teams of highly skilled, highly motivated clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can provide a full clinical service securely from the comfort of their own homes, removing the need to find space on-site for them and reducing the environmental impact at the same time.

Talk to us about our fully managed remote clinical pharmacist services

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