Community pharmacy minor ailment services: Pharmacy stakeholder perspectives on the factors affecting sustainability

Abstract

The Programme Sustainability Assessment Tool allowed stakeholders to evaluate the potential of pharmacy minor ailment services in England. Follow-up interviews highlighted that initial design and implementation of services was poorly conceived and lacked evidence, thereby impeding the services' sustainability. There are many challenges facing a widespread provision of pharmacy ailment services, but it is clear the profession needs to be clear on the service objectives to secure future interest and investment.

Sustainable Business Models in Hybrids: A Conceptual Framework for Community Pharmacies’ Business Owners

“…Examples of best practices related to pharmacies that have become healthy living and information centers were already present when Anderson (2000) reviewed health promotion in community pharmacies in the UK [63]; the author proposed an improvement in the abilities of the workforce of community pharmacies through ad hoc training to integrate health promotion with PC and provision by paymasters of an adequate refund for community pharmacies' services. Currently, the situation does not seem to have changed and the criticalities that tend to persist concern the scarce representation of pharmacists by their association within healthcare policies, a lack of strong relationships with other healthcare professionals, a lack of collaboration between pharmacists in order to establish a common strategy for the provision of PC services, a lack of involvement of patients in the design of services, and so on [64]. A stakeholder analysis conducted in Nazar and Nazar's study (2018) revealed a major need for community pharmacies to collaborate with healthcare professionals at various levels in order to become the patients' port of call for services and advice [64].…”

“…Currently, the situation does not seem to have changed and the criticalities that tend to persist concern the scarce representation of pharmacists by their association within healthcare policies, a lack of strong relationships with other healthcare professionals, a lack of collaboration between pharmacists in order to establish a common strategy for the provision of PC services, a lack of involvement of patients in the design of services, and so on [64]. A stakeholder analysis conducted in Nazar and Nazar's study (2018) revealed a major need for community pharmacies to collaborate with healthcare professionals at various levels in order to become the patients' port of call for services and advice [64].…”

A service evaluation and stakeholder perspectives of an innovative digital minor illness referral service from NHS 111 to community pharmacy

“…A recent study found that the main barriers to the embedding and sustainability of these services were the historical poor service design, development and implementation, and lack of recorded evidence. [8] On a more general level, the 2016 independent review of community pharmacy clinical services found the main barriers to successful clinical service provision were:…”

Pharmacist Prescribing for Minor Ailments Service Development: The Experience in Ontario

“…As such, all practicing pharmacists are required to complete this module within one year of its availability. Furthermore, previous work in this area noted that to assist with sustainability of a PPMA program, it is important for the profession to be clear on and understand the objectives of the service [ 35 , 36 ]. Clinical education is not mandated and, as with any practice development, pharmacists are responsible for self-assessing their need for additional continuing education to ensure that they have the required knowledge, skill, and judgement required to provide quality patient care.…”