Community pharmacist consultation service
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Healthwatch Herefordshire was asked by the Pharmacy Integration team at NHS England and Improvement to evaluate the NHS community pharmacy consultation service to general practice and the wider system. They interviewed 4 staff from the Hereford Medical Group, 5 staff from Community Pharmacy Teams and 8 patients.
They concluded that the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service is working well, although areas of improvement have been identified and action is being taken accordingly by Hereford Medical Group.
Continued communication between Hereford Medical Group and the Community Pharmacy Teams is key to the success of the services as is obtaining regular feedback from patients.
It is important that all parties continue to raise awareness of the service with patients to ensure that it is utilised fully and provides benefit to both them and in turn frees up much needed capacity for GPs.
During the evaluation period despite using many methods to promote the evaluation to patients Healthwatch encountered difficulties in securing a wide spread of patient views due to low rates of engagement from HMG patients. This too was an issue with pharmacists who understandably due to their workload did not have time to set aside to be interviewed.
The resulting evaluation must be seen in this context and as a snapshot of the CPCS operating in Hereford