Pharmacotherapy
Pharmacotherapy Introduction
The Pharmacotherapy model in Lanarkshire supports multi-disciplinary teams working in GP practices to help patients to see the right person at the right time – this can include a pharmacist or pharmacy technician.
The Pharmacy Team aims to ensure patients’ medications are safe and effective for them, while ensuring cost-efficient prescribing and evidenced-based treatment.
The establishment of Pharmacotherapy hub sites in the 10 NHS Lanarkshire localities has been the primary priority in recent years. This has led to Lanarkshire being the first health board in Scotland to have a fully-established pharmacotherapy hub model. The service provided by the hubs has been hugely impactful as it is a 5-day, year-round, backfilled service.
To visit the Pharmacotherapy service pages for patients, visit: https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/services/pharmacotherapy/
Pharmacotherapy Hubs
Pharmacotherapy hubs are a centralised service, which provide remote pharmacotherapy support to GP practices. This is in addition to the pharmacotherapy support that GP practices receive directly from their practice-based pharmacy teams.
Staff in the hubs support practices with pharmacy-appropriate medicines reconciliation activities. This includes actioning immediate discharge letters and outpatient letters.
There are 10 Pharmacotherapy hubs across Lanarkshire (one in each locality) and every local GP practice now has access to a hub. The hubs offer a consistent service, which supports practices year-round.
A variety of staff work in the hubs, including pharmacy support workers, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists. Pharmacy support workers are typically based in hubs, where pharmacists and technicians work across GP practices and hub sites.
To find out more about each role, click on the images below.
Pharmacy Support Worker
Pharmacy support workers (PSWs) assist pharmacists and pharmacy technicians by carrying out routine non-clinical tasks such as making technical changes to medicines reconciliation letters before passing to a pharmacist for an accuracy and clinical check. Medicines reconciliation is compiling an up-to-date-list of a person’s medication to check if it is still appropriate.
PSWs also work to standard operating procedures to ensure safe and effective use of medicines. They are a key part of the administrative process to record information about medicines and medication-related activities in general practice. PSWs have an important role in improving patient care and they also create more time for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to review and complete more clinically complex pharmacy and patient-centred tasks.
Primary Care Pharmacy Technician
Pharmacy technicians work with the primary care clinical pharmacists and multidisciplinary team to contribute to the effective and efficient use of medicines. They are healthcare professionals, registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). Pharmacy technicians work within specific protocols to help patients get the best from their medicines and promote high quality, evidence-based and cost effective use of medicines.
Pharmacy technicians provide an invaluable service to GP practices with a range of activities that include processing medicines reconciliation to a high standard that is then passed on for a clinical check. While technicians don’t clinically check prescription requests, their role supports the pharmacist to do so. Over the coming years, it is anticipated the role of pharmacy technicians will develop further.
Primary Care Pharmacist
Pharmacists work within the primary care multidisciplinary team in general practice leading on safe, cost-effective and evidence-based prescribing of medicines. They use their clinical knowledge and judgement when reviewing prescribing requests and carrying out medicines reconciliation and medication review clinics.
This involves reviewing patients’ medications, completing clinical examinations and analysing patients’ results and symptoms to support patients to get the best outcomes from their medicines. Pharmacists also support improvement in clinical care through engagement with the prescribing quality and efficiency work that covers practice-based audits, safety reviews and implementation of prescribing improvement initiatives.
Videos about the Pharmacotherapy service
The short videos below focus on the different areas of the Pharmacotherapy service:
Pharmacotherapy
Medicines management
Hubs
Medication reviews
Staff views
Evaluation
Evaluation has been at the core of the pharmacotherapy work and all this work is available on the dedicated Evaluation webpage.
