Our pharmacy team is made up of a combination of Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians.

All of our pharmacy team hold the regulatory required professional qualifications and are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council. They also hold, or will be working towards, additional qualifications, including the ‘Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway’ which equips our team with additional skills and experience relating to working in GP surgeries with patients who suffer from many long-term health conditions. We also have some pharmacists who are ‘Independent Prescribers’, and are trained in assessing, diagnosing and treating certain medical conditions independently, and they are able to issue prescriptions for medications that fall within their area of training and expertise. In addition, we have some pharmacists who have achieved or are working towards a level of Advanced Clinical Practice.

The team are based remotely and may occasionally be on site at the Practice.   We try and offer both telephone and Face-to-Face appointments. Some appointments might be offered at a different Surgery in the network. If you have a telephone appointment with a member of the team, you may not recognise the telephone number they are calling from, but they will always confirm who they are and introduce themselves. They will also confirm your full name and Date of Birth

The benefits of an appointment with our pharmacy team include:

·         Typically, patients will be able to access appointments more quickly than a GP appointment.

·         Longer/in-depth appointments to review your medication regime, particularly following a change, addition or removal of medication.

·         Our service aims to improve your access to the Right Care, at the Right Time, from the Right Clinician.

Our Pharmacy Technicians complete ‘medicines reconciliation’ tasks (checking for any changes made to your medication regime during a stay in hospital or if you have seen a specialist in clinic) and update your GP medicine prescription record. 

As part of this, they will investigate any medication-related queries with hospital departments and community pharmacies. 

They also carry out clinical audits and manage high risk drug monitoring, requesting bloods and reviewing medication as a result of this.

They support the practices with working towards the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

They have consultations with patients regarding any confusion or concerns about their medication (e.g. side effects) and respond to general queries regarding supply issues (e.g. if an alternative medication needed), brand requests, aligning repeat medication supplies, and supporting patients that may need help to improve how they take their medicines (e.g. forgetting to take medications, swallowing difficulties.)

Generally, patients will be invited for review, either by the practice, a central administration team, or the pharmacy team themselves. This may be due to an upcoming review date, or if any blood test monitoring is required. 

Any incoming medication queries from patients that are triaged as appropriate for the pharmacy team to handle (freeing up GP time), will be added to the pharmacy team’s task list. 

Any other general tasks that the pharmacy team completes on a day-to-day basis, e.g. medicines reconciliation, will also be added to the pharmacy team’s appointment list. They may call you if they need to speak with you about any medication changes, however, this isn’t always necessary if there are no discrepancies or queries.