Patients in the Grampian region want their local pharmacies to be open later and more often according to the results of new research launched at the British
Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester.
The Scottish Executive Department of Health’s strategy paper, The Right Medicine, A Strategy for Pharmaceutical Care in Scotland1, called for a review of out-of-hours
pharmacy service provision in Scotland.
In answer to this, researchers at the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian set out to assess the local need for out of hours community pharmacy provision. Out of hours was defined as after the normal pharmacy closing time on weekdays and Saturdays, and all day Sunday, and public holidays.
Questionnaires were mailed to the public, all Grampian community pharmacy owner and managers, senior partners in all GP practices in Grampian, nurses, including
practice nurses, health visitors and community nurses, and all Community Health Partnership Pharmacists.
The research found some interesting facts:
• Almost half of the public did not know what to do if their pharmacy was closed
• People were prepared to travel up to two miles to reach a pharmacy
• The preferred time for extended opening was between 6pm - 8pm
• In the last 6 months 10% of the public, 33% of GPs and 11% of nurses had wanted to access a pharmacy outside normal opening hours. 24% of pharmacies had provided these services.
• 43% of community pharmacists said that they would be willing to provide out-of-hours pharmacy services in the future.
. Reasons for not being willing included issues of security (59%)
Pharmacist Professor Christine Bond of the University of Aberdeen, who led the study, says that the results showed that there is a definite unmet need for more out-
of-hours pharmacy services for the public and professionals.
“With patients experiencing reduced access to GPs out-of-hours, and pharmacists extended core roles envisaged in the new Scottish community pharmacy contract1, including
services such as Minor Ailments Schemes and Chronic Medicines Services, it isn’t surprising that demand for pharmacies to be open longer has increased.
“As a direct result of this study, a pilot service is being initiated in Peterhead, linked to the local out-of-hours medical service.
“Work begins in July 2006 for six months,” she
says.
“And we will be monitoring how much the service is used, plus the level of satisfaction with the service by patients and professionals.”