The PDA is committed to highlighting the potential for future clinical services in community pharmacies and the increasing opportunities of the pharmacists’ role in providing vaccination services. It supports the NHS vaccination strategy that states, “Multidisciplinary teams could offer wider health advice and interventions such as blood pressure, diabetes and heart checks.”
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)
To advocate for an increased role for pharmacists, the PDA is working to provide NHS policymakers with robust evidence of the feasibility, acceptability and impacts of any intervention that might be introduced.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) research project is a collaboration with Aston University and has been funded by Innovate UK Business Connect. The project will begin shortly and will investigate possible health interventions that pharmacists and the team at the Priory Community Pharmacy in Dudley could deliver to patients who have come for their flu or Covid-19 vaccination. Some of the services include lifestyle brief interventions, measuring blood pressure or screening for atrial fibrillation and/or raised cholesterol levels.
If the research is successful, it will support the PDA to further engage with NHS policymakers and advocate for an enhanced role of pharmacists when seeing patients. This will help to reduce health inequalities and integrate pharmacy further with the wider NHS. The research will also help to strengthen the PDA’s work in healthcare policy development.
Alison Jones, PDA Director of Policy said, “There are already some moves to enable pharmacists working in the community to deliver more aspects of clinical care. For example, with appropriate training, pharmacists can also take on some aspects of the prescribing of medicines. This project will be an important part of that evolution, supporting individual pharmacists to have more opportunities to practice and so develop more fulfilling careers.”
An important aspect of the study is hearing feedback from pharmacists about the acceptability of such service developments and what opportunities and barriers may impact their wider implementation. PDA members will be invited to participate in the coming months by Research Associate, Dr Jason Tang, and this will be communicated to everyone outlining the opportunity to take part in due course.
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