Use of community pharmacies: a population-based survey (original) (raw)
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Patient preference and adherence, 2016
Services provided by community pharmacists designed to support people using medicines are increasing. In England, two national services exist: Medicine Use Reviews (MUR) and New Medicines Service (NMS). Very few studies have been conducted seeking views of the public, rather than service users, on willingness to use these services or expectations of these services, or determined whether views align with pharmacist perceptions. To compare the perceptions of pharmacists and the general public on medicines-related services, particularly MUR and NMS services. Two parallel surveys were conducted in one area of England: one involved the general public and was administered using a street survey, and the other was a postal survey of community pharmacists. Similar questionnaires were used, seeking views of services, awareness, reasons for using services, and perceived benefits. Response rates were 47.2% (1,000/2,012 approached) for the public and 40.8% (341/836) for pharmacists. Few people h...
International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 2012
Community pharmacy in England has played an increasing role in public health the last 20 years. [1] Recent policy changes, since the introduction of the NHS contractual framework in April 2005, [2] have moved pharmacy towards a more healthfocused approach. The development of public health roles enables pharmacists to provide services beyond supply of medicines such as advice about healthy lifestyles. Pharmacists work at the heart of communities making them ideally placed to promote health and deliver services to improve the health of patients and the public. The aim of this study was to evaluate the views of members of the public concerning their use, and the acceptability of, community pharmacy services designed to improve public health. Medway School of Pharmacy Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for this study. A series of street-survey structured interviews were conducted in shopping centres and High Streets at four locations in the southeast of England during a 4 week period. Respondents were asked ten questions (open and closed), regarding their health; the pharmacy services they had used; and, the services they would consider using. The inclusion criteria were adults willing to participate and the exclusion criteria were children and young people under 18 years of age. A sample of 384 adults was required (95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval) to be representative of the adult population in England. Data was subject to descriptive statistics and content analysis. A total of 480 people were interviewed from 2,416 approached, a response rate of approximately 20%. Respondents were 72% (n = 345) female and 28% (n = 135) male; 4% aged 18/19 years; 49% ages between 20-59; 35% 60-74 and 12% over 75 years. The respondents stated ethnicity was 80% White-British, 8% Asian-British, 10% Black-African/Caribbean and 2% refused to answer. The usage of pharmacies by respondents was exceptionally high, 99% (n = 476). People aged more than 75 years reported the highest regular use of pharmacy (27%, n = 16) compared with only 11% (n = 2) of younger adults (18-19 years). Only 2% (n = 1) of people over 75 said they very rarely used pharmacies compared with 39%, (n = 7) of young adults aged 18-19 years. Supply of prescribed medication to people over 60 years (84%, n = 189) and sales of over the counter medicine to people less than 60 years (64%, n = 164) were the most frequently used pharmacy services. When asked to state, from a list, which other pharmacy services they had accessed 44% (n = 210) had asked pharmacists for advice; 8% (n = 37) medicines use review; 8% blood pressure testing; 7% (n = 33) minor ailments scheme; and 3% each for stop smoking, vaccination, emergency contraception, and cholesterol testing. Services they indicated they would be willing to use were vaccinations 31% (n = 61); blood pressure testing; 30% (n = 59); cholesterol testing (28%, n = 54); minor ailments scheme (11%, n = 21); 10% each for diabetes testing and stop smoking; and 6% (n = 12) for weight management. Whilst it can be seen that the current uptake of public health services is low, participants in this study expressed a willingness to use pharmacy based public health services. The Department of Health has provided a policy framework for public health service development in pharmacy in England; however, pharmacists as individuals and as a profession have work to do to capitalise on public willingness and, increase public awareness of their roles beyond sale and supply of medicines. [3] Abstract 47 Impact of community pharmacy diabetes monitoring and education programme on diabetes management: a randomised controlled study
Pharmacy Practice, 2016
Objective: Patients' opinion about prevalence of pharmaceutical services available in a community pharmacy among patients living in a rural area of the United Kingdom. The secondary objective was to identify appropriate action(s) to enhance patients' awareness of pharmaceutical services in rural areas. Methods: A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was distributed to patients visiting a community pharmacy in Eye, Suffolk, United Kingdom between July and August, 2015. The main inclusion criterion was living in a rural area. Comparisons were performed using chi-square tests and logistic regression. Results: The study included 103 respondents: 70 women (69.0%) and 33 men (32.0%), aged 16-85 years. Most respondents declared the primary tasks of a community pharmacy were dispensing medicines (86.4% of respondents) and repeat dispensing (72.8% of respondents). Additionally, 23.3% of respondents treated minor ailments at the pharmacy, including bacterial/viral infections, minor injuries, stomach problems, and allergies. The Medicines Use Review service was the only advanced service used in this pharmacy (12.6% of respondents), primarily by men. Younger patients were more familiar with the term of pharmaceutical care (p<0.05; OR=0.33). Conclusions: Only a few pharmaceutical services are utilized by people living in rural areas in the UK, namely prescription dispensing, repeat dispensing, and sale of medications that support self-care for minor ailments. We found an overall poor awareness of the expanded variety of pharmaceutical services encouraged by the community pharmacy contract introduced in the UK in 2005. Therefore, politicians, pharmacists, and pharmacy experts should actively promote these advanced pharmaceutical services in rural areas.
Views of the general public on the role of pharmacy in public health
2010
Objectives To determine the views of healthy adults on the importance of activities aimed at improving public health, on the role of community pharmacies in contributing to these and on a range of potential pharmacy-based public health services. Method Three hundred healthy adults completed a questionnaire developed from the literature, using a street survey technique in an English city centre. Key findings More than half of the respondents (57%) were infrequent pharmacy users, but 65% (195) had asked for advice about health and/or medicines from community pharmacy staff and 41.3% (124) had received unsolicited advice on health. Only 23% considered that pharmacies were the best place from which to seek general health advice, irrespective of frequency of pharmacy use. There was a general lack of awareness of pharmacy capacity and role in public health. With the exception of smoking-cessation support, the role of pharmacy in providing activities related to improving public health did not relate to respondents views on the importance of the activity. However, most supported the provision of specific services by pharmacies, especially among frequent pharmacy users. A significant proportion of respondents said they would not use pharmacy as a source of public health advice, due to issues around confidentiality, privacy, space and busyness. Conclusions There is little awareness of pharmacy's involvement in providing services designed to improve public health among the general public and a need exists to market these effectively. More research is required to further explore the public's views on how to facilitate pharmacy's contribution to public health.
Public health
To explore the experience of and willingness to use seven pharmacy public health services related to cardiovascular risk among the general public in England. Mixed-methods study. A mixed-methods study, involving a cross-sectional survey using multiple distribution methods followed by a focus group discussion (FGD) with a sample of survey respondents. From 3596 approachable individuals, 908 questionnaires were completed (response rate 25.3%). Few respondents (2.1-12.7%) had experienced any of the seven pharmacy public health services. About 40% stated they would be willing to use health check services, fewer (9.3-26.3%) were willing to use advisory services. More females, frequent pharmacy users and those in good health were willing to use services in general (P < 0.05). Smokers, overweight individuals and those with alcohol-related problems were most willing to use specific advisory services supporting their problems (P < 0.05). FGD identified barriers to service use; for exam...
Exploring the supply of non-prescription medicines from community pharmacies in Scotland
Pharmacy World & Science, 2008
The objectives of this study were to: (1) explore pharmacy support staff (PSS) opinions of and attitudes towards the supply of non-prescription medicines (NPMs); (2) assess whether NPM supply is compliant with professional and good practice guidelines. Methods This exploratory study was conducted in community pharmacies in Grampian, Scotland, and comprised non-participant observation of NPM consultations, semi-structured interviews with, and a questionnaire of, PSS. Guideline compliance was assessed by a consensus group of practising community pharmacists. Main outcome measures The percentage of consultations which achieved compliance with professional guidelines was calculated. A total score was also calculated for each consultation to assess compliance with good practice guidelines. Results Fiftyseven support staff from 21 pharmacies participated in at least one component of the study. In total, 195 observed consultations were evaluable. Fifty-four participants completed a questionnaire and 95 post-consultation interviews were completed. Most consultations involved product requests and were for self-treatment. Overall, interviewees were satisfied or very satisfied with 78 (83.0%) and 14 (14.9%) of all consultations, respectively. Participants' self-reported scores for the quality of consultation were high indicating that they perceived their consultations to be appropriate. Most PSS were aware of good practice guidelines and thought their use was important/very important, yet few consultations were fully guideline compliant. Non-product consultations were more guideline compliant than product consultations. Just over one third (35.6%) of consultations established whether other medication was being used by the intended recipient of the NPM. Few PSS (21.2%) had read the professional guidelines and as such, compliance with these guidelines was extremely low. The percentage of guideline compliant consultations were 6.6% (n = 5) (sufficient information gathered), 13.2% (n = 10) (adequate advice/information provision), 46.1% (n = 35) (personal involvement of pharmacist), 21.1% (n = 16) (particular care of specific patient groups) and 28.9% (n = 22) (pharmacist involvement with specific NPMs). Conclusion Few consultations for NPMs in this study were fully guideline compliant. The reasons for non-compliance with good practice and professional guidelines need to be explored. Although failure to comply with professional guidelines could be due to PSS's lack of awareness, this does not explain non-compliance with good practice guidelines.
International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 2011
Objective To quantify pharmacy intervention rates for non-prescription medications (pharmacist-only and pharmacy medicines), to document the clinical significance of these interventions and to determine the adverse health consequences and subsequent health care avoided as a result of the interventions. Methods Non-prescription medicines interventions undertaken by community pharmacy staff were recorded in two field studies: a study of all Australian pharmacies to determine incidence rates for low-incidence, highly significant interventions, and a study of a sample of pharmacies to collect data on all non-prescription interventions. Recorded interventions were assessed by a clinical panel for clinical significance, potential adverse health consequence avoided, probability and likely duration of the adverse health consequence. Key findings The rate of professional intervention that occurs in Australia for pharmacist-only and pharmacy medicines is 5.66 per 1000 unit sales (95% confidence interval 4.79-6.64). Rates of intervention varied by clinical significance. When considering health care avoided, the main impact of the interventions was avoidance of urgent general practitioner (GP) visits, followed by avoidance of regular GP visits and accident and emergency treatment. The most common adverse health consequences avoided were exacerbations of an existing condition (e.g. hypertension, asthma) and adverse drug effects. Conclusions This study demonstrates the way in which community pharmacy encourages appropriate non-prescription medicine use and prevents harm through intervening at the point of supply. It was estimated that Australian pharmacies perform 485 912 interventions per annum when dealing with non-prescription medicines, with 101 324 per annum being interventions that avert emergency medical attention or serious harm, or which are potentially life saving.