Clinical Pharmacists in General Practice
You will be aware of the new £15m three year pilot to fund, recruit and employ clinical pharmacists in GP practices. The announcement is part of the GP workforce 10 point plan, Building the Workforce – the New Deal for General Practice.
Further information about the pilot, including the application form, is available via the BMA website.
The pilot will be part-fund the employment of a practice pharmacist for three years with an expectation that practices will continue with the role into year four and beyond. NHS England will provide practices with match funding of 60% in the first year, 40% in the second year and 20% in the third year. It is anticipated that some 250 clinical pharmacists will be involved over this period.
The focus will be on areas of greatest need where GPs are under significant pressure, and the pilot should build on the success of those GP practices already employing pharmacists in patient-facing roles. A series of roadshows will be held throughout the application period in the eight regions with the highest levels of deprivation and the lowest GP training recruitment rates. These are yet to be identified, and although Somerset is unlikely to fulfil either of these criteria, it may still be worth considering a bid because of the particular problems that rural and semi-rural areas currently have with workforce recruitment
As well as individual practices, those working collaboratively, multi-site practices or GP networks / federations that are interested in offering patients different approaches to accessing care can bid.
The pilot proposal has two grades of clinical pharmacist working together:
- experienced clinical pharmacists who will be prescribers or working towards to prescribing qualifications and who will begin to see patients immediately, whilst developing additional skills such as leadership and change management
- less experienced clinical pharmacists will be employed as part of the same development programme, working with and mentored by the experienced pharmacists, developing their clinical skills in the context of general practice with the intention of taking on prescribing responsibilities in the course of the programme.
- The deadline for applications is Thursday 17th September and a decision will be taken on successful bids around mid-October.
