Community pharmacies are healthy living hubs at the heart of our communities, providing access to dedicated and trusted healthcare professionals who are experts in medicines and who...

Community pharmacies are healthy living hubs at the heart of our communities, providing access to dedicated and trusted healthcare professionals who are experts in medicines and who can help people make healthy choices and live healthier lives. We see people before they get ill as well as help them manage when they do. We can prevent, we can scan, we can screen and we can treat. How can we radically transform the way think and work together to realise community pharmacy’s full potential to contribute to the health of the nation? Question provided by Sarah Billington MRPharmS FRSPH Chief Officer Hampshire & IOW Pharmaceutical Committee

At a local level community pharmacies can support their representative bodies such as Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) and potentially Local Professional Networks to work more strategically. In particular, they can gather evidence to show the nature and extent of their day to day brief interventions and how these translate into referrals into pharmacy and other community services. With this evidence, community pharmacy can present strong cases to future commissioners, building on their accessibility. We have done this on a small scale in Sheffield with both the introduction of a pilot seasonal flu service and enhanced public health campaigns around weight management and alcohol, implemented by our pathfinder Healthy Living Pharmacies. Supported by Sheffield PCT and Sheffield LPC, both initiatives have demonstrated the potential of community pharmacy with supporting service data and patient feedback. Another tack is for LPCs to work closely with remaining PCT staff to introduce and present the work of community pharmacy teams to local Councillors via eg the Oversight and Scrutiny Committee for health and to public health colleagues, educating and reminding the strategic planners how well placed community pharmacy is in supporting patients with their health and wellbeing.

There are a growing range of public health services available through community pharmacies in Sheffield, often targeted towards the most deprived and vulnerable. At the heart of local
communities, pharmacy teams can reach out to hard to reach patient groups and those that might appear ‘apparently well’.

There are a number of areas of community pharmacies work that bridges the ground where the local authority and NHS agendas meet. As the transition of the responsibilities for public health into local government are underway, is this the time to look more systematically at the opportunities this provides? From providing advice and information about obtaining personal care; to identifying individuals where early intervention to tackle social care needs will prevent further deterioration; to the opportunity of building support networks through the community based knowledge and networks of the local community pharmacy. The current financial climate provides us all with a great opportunity for finding different ways of doing things and establishing creative alliances.

How do pharmacies in Sheffield address alcohol issues? It seems to me that they could offer some advice on alcohol which might help people think a bit more about their alcohol consumption and ways to make a change if they wish.

The Royal College of Physicians suggested in a report last week (Action on obesity: comprehensive care for all) that GPs should direct obese patients to community services, including pharmacies, rather than offering in-house clinics, and called for a national model for the commissioning of community services for obese patients.

This is further testament that pharmacists must be doing something right here. Pharmacies have been running dedicated weight management services for over a decade. In the last couple of years the Royal College of Public Health has become more involved in pharmacy, and the NHS has given the nod to the Healthy Living Pharmacy initiative which offer accessible public health service to the local community.
The big sticking point for pharmacy has been demonstrating value. But this has all started to change over the last few months. More pharmacists are starting to use IT programmes to keep patient records for their weight management service and audit the impact on people’s health.
The evidence I’ve seen clearly shows that community pharmacies offer a very successful and cost-effective service that will make a big impact in reducing the obesity epidemic and the costs to the NHS.

So why are GPs and commissioning groups not routinely referring the obese to their local pharmacy? Is it lack of awareness, does pharmacy need to shout more or is there still alot of convincing needed?