I’ve just spoken to a practice pharmacists who worked with Medacy last year on, what was then the biggest deployment of practice pharmacists in England. She is fantastic. She worked in a challenging practice but really pushed to realise the potential of the pharmacist role in a GP practice. She left to take up a similar role in a small group practice but is just re-authorising prescriptions all day. Real shame.
I know she will succeed because she knows what the role should be but I’m concerned that many practice pharmacists are in a similar position without the knowledge of what the role could and should be.. The problem is that the role is new. Some argue that there have been pharmacists working in GP practices for years and that’s true, but their role was usually administrative in focus rather than patient facing
A practice pharmacists can take a lot of the medication workload off GPs but this must be combined with a patient-facing role. Pharmacists are the experts in medication and can make a massive difference to patients with medication challenges. Polypharmacy patients, patients on high-risk meds and patients in care homes are three groups where practice pharmacists can transform care.
Realise your full potential!
