Pharmacist triage success

A PHARMACIST-LED triage pilot at a Bri sh general prac ce clinic is freeing up 34 hours of GP‐ me each week, and slashing wai ng mes.

Three months into the year‐ long trial, the clinic is considering expanding it to provide triage services for its out‐of‐hours service on Sat mornings, The Pharmaceu cal Journal reports.

As part of the program, pa ents at the St John’s Way Medical Centre in Islington, North London, have been advised to contact the clinic by phone to make an appointment, when they call the GP pharmacist assesses their needs and directs them to an alterna ve service if they do not need to be seen by a GP.

Prior to the start of the trial the clinic employed two GPs to triage walk‐in pa ents, however, with the pharmacist one GP has been freed up to provide clinical care.

“A three‐month review of the project has shown posi ve results,” a spokesperson for the clinic said.

“We have managed to reduce the wai ng me for pa ents to see a GP on the same day and have also reduced the total number of same‐ day face‐to‐face contacts with a GP.”

Islington GP Federa on Lead Pharmacist, Soumia Gillam, said the trial’s ini al success had prompted considera on of extending the service to the I:HUB out‐of‐hours GP clinic, no ng that more than one‐in‐five calls to the service related to medica on queries, while a further 13% related to minor injuries or suspected urinary tract infec ons.

“About 40% of those [I:HUB] pa ents could be managed by a clinical pharmacist,” Gillam said.

“They do not necessarily need to see a GP.”