eNgLISH HeaLTH SeCReTaRy, MaTT HaNCOCK, ReCeNTLy STaTeD THaT He WaNTeD NHS HeaLTHCaRe CONSuLTaTIONS TO Be TeLeCONSuLTaTIONS. SCOTLaND IS aLReaDy ROLLINg OuT a gReaT INITIaTIve, BuT NORTHeRN IReLaND’S pHaRMaCISTS aRe CeRTaINLy DOINg THeIR BIT aS WeLL!
PHARMACY SERVICES HIT THE SMALL SCREEN!
W
hile a reconfigured Minor ailments/pharmacy First service once again begins
to support self care with the aim of reducing demand on other parts of the health and social care sector, many patients are still reluctant to visit pharmacies. But technology is offering a viable alternative solution.
In Scotland, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman, recently announced that more than £3 million was to be spent on a ‘rapid scaling up’ of NHS facilities for video consultations in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
as a result, the Scottish government is putting the money into the Near Me system: a video consulting service for outpatient appointments.
‘Near Me has actually been in existence for some time,’ says Clare Morrison, National Near Me Lead for the Scottish government (and now the new Director of Royal pharmaceutical Service Scotland). ‘prior to COvID-19, the service was
24 - pHaRMaCy IN FOCuS
designed primarily as a hospital outpatient service for remote and rural areas. There was also some limited use in gp practices, but, once the service was scaled up in response to COvID-19, we began to look at how it could be rolled out across community pharmacy.
‘Community pharmacies are particularly well suited to this service as they are generally viewed as the most easily accessible primary care service and patients are used to phoning in to their pharmacies for advice and information. Near Me simply provides a more visual way in which pharmacists can carry out face- to-face consultations without making direct contact.
‘I initially spoke to the Directors of pharmacy about how we could use Near Me and also consulted with Community pharmacy Scotland (CpS) and the Royal pharmaceutical Society in Scotland (RpS).
‘at the beginning of June, we began by working with two pharmacists -
Jonathan Burton in NHS Forth valley and Catriona Sinclair in NHS Highland – to work out how a pharmacy’s technical readiness could be assessed and how training could be undertaken.
‘The Directors of pharmacy in NHS Dumfries & galloway and Tayside also supported similar testing in their areas. altogether, 44 pharmacies were involved. This was all carried out over a period of one month because we naturally had to move quite quickly, given the challenges that were being increasingly posed by COvID-19.
‘as a result of the testing that was carried out, we were able to produce draft guidance as to how Near Me could be most effectively implemented in community pharmacy. This included the technical aspect of the service – how it would be set up, for example, and how the patients would find out about it. We also had to assess how it would fit in with the normal workflow in pharmacies.
‘at the end of the test period we took comments on the draft and these were then sent for final approval by professor alison Strath from the Scottish government’s pharmacy division and by both CpS and RpS, all of whom endorsed the guidance.
‘The guidance was published at the end of June and was circulated both by the Directors of pharmacy and in a CpS newsletter and an NHS circular. In this way, we hoped that all community pharmacies would know about the initiative.
‘The fact that video consultations are of prime importance at the moment is obviously a major positive factor of Near Me,’ Clare continues, ‘but it can be used by pharmacists however they decide is clinically appropriate, for example, within pharmacy First to provide consultations. If all pharmacies had Near Me ready to go, it could save patients having to go to the pharmacy. even if it’s totally necessary for a patient to go into the pharmacy, for example to collect a medicine, having the consultation by
Photo by Allie on Unsplash
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