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Over 439,000 people across Cumbria and the North East set to benefit as clinical pharmacists join general practice teams

Following the success of the 2015 clinical pharmacy pilot, which brought 494 clinical pharmacists in to general practice across the country; NHS England has announced the second wave of areas set to benefit from having a clinical pharmacist in their general practice team.

Clinical pharmacists work as part of the surgery team to resolve day-to-day medicine issues and also consult with and treat patients. This includes providing extra  support to manage long-term conditions, advice for those on multiple medications and better access to health checks.

In Cumbria and the North East 14 clinical pharmacists and three senior clinical pharmacists will work across 62 sites and with GP practices, representing a population of 439,784 people.

As part of the General Practice Forward View (GPFV), which is committed to invest over a billion pounds to support general practice, and during a time when general practice is facing unprecedented pressure, clinical pharmacists are  key to improving quality of care, ensuring patient safety and supporting general practitioners to deliver the best services to their patients.

Professor Chris Gray, medical director at NHS England Cumbria and the North East, said: “We are delighted that so many local people will be benefiting from the rollout of the second wave of the clinical pharmacist pilot scheme.

“Evaluation of the pilot in other areas of the country has found that having a clinical pharmacist, who is an independent pharmacist prescriber, within general practice can free up to three and a half hours of GP time a day.”