Emergency pharmacy pays off
A NEW emergency pharmacy service has saved more than 8,000 unnecessary visits to North Wales GPs, outpatient clinics and casualty, according to health chiefs.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) became the first health board in Wales to take advantage of a change in regulations, which allows the Welsh NHS to fund the emergency supply of prescription medication to patients.
The Community Pharmacy Medicines Service (CPMS) means more than 130 North Wales pharmacists can supply a patient’s regular medicines, free of charge, in an emergency without the need to get a prescription.
The idea is to reduce the demand and workload on overstretched GP surgeries, out-ofhours’ services and A&E.
New data reveals the service completed 8,025 emergency supply consultations between December 2015 and November 2016, and supplied 11,936 items of medication.
Of the 8,025 consultations, 1,016 patients said they would have contacted their GP with- out the service, 2,863 said they would have accessed the GP out-of-hours’ service and 866 said they would have visited a nearby A&E department.
The remaining 3,149 said they would have potentially gone without their medication.
With the average 10-minute GP appointment costing £44 and a hospital outpatient appointment costing £153, according to NHS figures, the value of the saved appointments amounts to almost £300,000.
Berwyn Owen, BCUHB chief pharmacist said: “While these arrangements are more cost- effective than the alternative, which might be an A&E visit, the core benefit is really the fact that it frees up a GP’s time to deal with a patient who really needs medical help.
“We’re very pleased with the performance of the service and it is a real success story. We’ve been running the Community Pharmacy Medicines Service throughout BCUHB for two years now and we’re already seeing just how much of an impact it can have.
“But it’s important to remember that this is a service that has been set up to help patients access their medicines in an emergency when things have gone wrong – it’s not a service which should be accessed as a matter of routine.”
At the community pharmacy, patients have a short consultation with the pharmacist.
The patient’s identity is checked and a check is also made to ensure that the medication they have requested is regularly supplied to them on prescription.
Pharmacy staff will then make organise a supply of the regular medication to the patient which is free of charge with the cost being paid by NHS Wales.