More patients in the South region will soon be able to benefit from expert advice from a clinical pharmacist when they visit their GP surgery, thanks to the roll out of the national  Clinical Pharmacists in General Practice programme.

Ten areas of the South have successfully applied to NHS England to be part of the first wave of the scheme’s roll out.  This will mean around 35 additional clinical pharmacists working to support services across a further 114 GP practices across the region, covering a total patient population of just over one million.

The areas of the South which successfully applied to NHS England for funding to recruit and train more clinical pharmacists to work with GP practices in their areas are listed below:

As part of measures to support general practice and give patients more convenient access to care, NHS England made a commitment in the national GP Forward View to invest over £100 million to support an extra 1,500 clinical pharmacists to work in GP services across England by 2020/21.

Over 490 clinical pharmacists are already working across approximately 650 GP practices in England (including within the South) as part of the initial clinical pharmacist pilot scheme, which was launched by NHS England in 2015. Today’s announcement by NHS England confirms the arrangements for the wider roll out of clinical pharmacists working in GP practices, to support patient care.

Clinical pharmacists work in general practice services as part of a multi-disciplinary team and can clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific diseases.

This includes helping to manage patients’ long-term conditions, for example helping to tackle someone’s high blood pressure earlier and more effectively to prevent a patient from developing cardiovascular disease.   They can also give advice to patients who need to take multiple medicines and undertake clinical medication reviews to ensure the best possible care for patients, particularly those with long term conditions and complex care needs, people living in residential care homes and the elderly.    They can also help ensure GP practices prescribe antibiotics sensibly and offer patients better access to health checks.

This all delivers quicker access to clinical advice for patients and allows GPs to spend time with patients who have more complex needs, thus helping GPs to manage demands on their time and ensuring patients see the health professional that best suits their needs.

Caroline Temmink, Regional Head of Primary Care, NHS England South, welcomed the announcement:

“Clinical pharmacists have been working in GP practices across the country as part of a very successful pilot.  Already, they have made a significant contribution to reducing the pressure on GPs while also improving access to the right professional care.  Today’s announcement sets out how the scheme will be expanded, bringing benefits to over one million patients across the South region.

“Working within multi-disciplinary teams, as well as being able to handle routine prescribing, the clinical pharmacists undertake medicine reviews, help manage discharge of people from hospitals to make sure they are taking the right medicines in the right dose and identify patients who might need ongoing support to stay safe and well.

“We’ve already seen the benefit from the pilot sites here in the South and this announcement sets out a much welcome expansion to the programme, just part of a raft of measures under the General Practice Forward View to better support general practice and improve care.”

NHS England is inviting more GP practices and other providers of general practice medical services to apply for funding to help recruit, train and develop more clinical pharmacists, as part of the national programme. The deadline for the second wave of applications is 12 May 2017 and more information is available on NHS England’s website.

The full list of local areas that form the first wave of the roll out of the programme across England is available.