Innovations in pharmacy
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NHS Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group asked Healthwatch Dudley if it could help with getting people’s views on how Practice Based Pharmacy and Prescription Ordering Direct services were working for them. They undertook a focus group with 20 attendees to inform the research.
The findings show pharmacists are an extra source of help and advice for people when they have a question about their health or medicines. They can be trusted to monitor people’s health situations and the medicines they are using. And there is value in having different options for people to use when it comes to getting access to repeat prescription re-ordering services. But it is necessary to clearly communicate to the public how access to their medical records held at the doctor’s surgery will work.
To further develop pharmacy services in the future and make the most of pharmacists and the training and skills they possess it will be necessary to continue to identify and eliminate unhelpful bureaucracy and boundaries within and between healthcare professions. At the same time, the profile of pharmacy and pharmacists could be improved through more publicity and the enhanced visibility of pharmacists outside of the narrow community or high street pharmacy environment.