EMIS Spotlight ISSUE 4 DIGITAL 2

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The Pharmacy First initiative: Implications for primary care

Spring 2024

Earlier this year, the Pharmacy First scheme was introduced into community pharmacy to address the growing pressures faced by the wider care sector.

The £654m initiative has led to a shift in workloads towards pharmacies, as they widen their service provision to include the treatment of seven common conditions including earache, sore throats, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women. Under this new scheme, pharmacists can now conduct consultations and treat these conditions without the need for a GP visit. What this means for primary care With an aim to eliminate the ‘8am rush’ for patient appointments, the Pharmacy First scheme alleviates the mounting pressures faced by primary care. Patients will now enjoy quicker, more convenient access to NHS services through their local pharmacy, which is estimated to free up approximately 15 million GP appointments over the next two years. How we’re supporting the scheme In addition to a series of back-end improvements to ensure that EMIS Web can support Pharmacy First, we’ve also developed a series of user-facing changes to Local Services.

Updates to Local Services Local Services enables GPs and their staff to quickly and safely create Pharmacy First referrals directly from EMIS Web. A Pharmacy First Triage assessment tool gives non-clinical staff the power to determine a patient’s suitability for referral. If the patient is eligible, the system will allow the user to select a preferred pharmacy, and the referral is then sent across directly to the chosen pharmacy. Once the assessment has taken place, a SNOMED coded record of this interaction is filed back to the patient’s care record. It’s this new functionality that is making it even easier for practices to handle and process data from pharmacies.