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The average length of a pharmacist consultation is 28.4 minutes, according to the findings of the Independent Prescribing in Community Pharmacy Pathfinder Programme, a senior NHS England pharmacist has confirmed.
Speaking at The Pharmacy Show in Birmingham on 14 October 2024, Wasim Baqir, senior pharmacist for the Pharmacy Integration Fund at NHS England, said that 1,153 consultations have been completed between 23 February 2024 and 9 September 2024 across 13 pathfinder sites so far.
“In a third of those consultations, we’ve had prescriptions [provided]. Prescriptions [were] changed or altered in about 10% [of cases], and 5% had prescriptions or medicines stopped,” he added.
A slide presented by Baqir further showed that 334 consultations resulted in a prescription, along with 114 prescription changes. During the consultations, 350 medicines were prescribed, 106 medicines were changed and 66 medicines stopped.
Models covered by the 13 sites included cardiovascular, minor ailments and prescription management services.
Baqir said: “It’s exciting to see that as we roll the programme out, we’re going to get lots of different types of clinical models tested, but [it] also shows the ability for community pharmacy, to work in this space.
“We’ll be taking learning from these models, and ultimately this will help us think about what current services look like with independent prescribers, but also what future services could look like.
“That will be very helpful for ICBs [integrated care boards] and local commissioners and local authorities to see what they can commission locally.
“What we have to do is make sure we put the governance and the support around it to make sure that any future life of independent prescribers is safe,” he said.
Under the Independent Prescribing in Community Pharmacy Pathfinder Programme, up to 210 community pharmacies across all 42 ICBs in England will trial independent prescribing, ahead of establishing a commissioning framework for the service.
However, the pharmacies taking part in the programme were originally planned to launch in January 2023, but have faced complications owing to issues with funding and implementation.
In May 2024, at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress, held at Excel London, Baqir revealed that 13 pathfinder clinical models had been approved by ICBs across England to cover: minor ailments, hypertension, respiratory, contraception, cardiovascular disease/lipids, dermatology, prescription management, antidepressant review, deprescribing, women’s health, long-term care management, anticoagulation and sexual health.
Additionally, Baqir confirmed to The Pharmacy Show delegates that around 40 pharmacies will have gone live with the Independent Prescribing in Community Pharmacy Pathfinder Programme by the end of October 2024.
“Since [2023] we’ve got a contract with CLEO Systems, an [electronic prescribing service] prescribing solution. We need to make sure that the systems are compatible and then they can be installed; that’s starting to happen,” he explained.
“We’ve got 196 pharmacies ready to go, where we’ve had to establish special cost centres, we’ve done that, and 13 sites in a proof of concept [that] have already gone live, that’s GP IT and paper prescriptions.
“Ultimately, we’ll be looking at independent community pharmacy prescribing via the EPS solution,” said Baqir.
Commenting on the figures, Alastair Buxton, director of NHS Services at Community Pharmacy England, said: “It is great that community pharmacist independent prescribers in the pathfinder sites are now getting going with consultations and prescribing, after the unfortunate delays to the project with putting in place the necessary IT support.
“There are a wide range of models being tested across the sites, using various approaches to workforce and a focus on a range of health conditions. The initial data therefore provides an interesting snapshot of progress in the pharmacies that have commenced consultations, but more granular data will need to be analysed in time before any findings can be distilled from the project.”
