Exploring the role of pharmacists in private primary healthcare clinics in Malaysia: the views of general practitioners

Abstract

Background Private general practitioners (GPs) in Malaysia mainly operate solo practices with little interdisciplinary collaboration or co‐ordination with other healthcare providers which potentially fragments and limits patient care. Pharmacists as medication experts can contribute to the private primary care sector using their influence to ensure quality use of medicines. Aim To explore the views of private GPs in Malaysia on integration of pharmacists into private primary healthcare clinics. Method A combination of purposive and snowballing sampling was used to recruit private sector GPs to participate in focus groups and semi‐structured interviews in Malaysia. Sessions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed using NVivo 10. Results Thirteen private GPs participated in one focus group and ten semi‐structured interviews. Four major themes were identified: (i) poor understanding of pharmacists’ roles; (ii) readiness to accept pharmacists in private primary healthcare clinics; (iii) lack of confidence and trust in pharmacists; and (iv) perceived increased costs with pharmacist integration. Results indicated participants’ views and acceptance were largely influenced by the amount of exposure and experience they had working alongside pharmacists. Participants viewed a lack of confidence in pharmacists and increase in costs associated with an employed pharmacist within private primary healthcare clinics as barriers to integration. Conclusion Private GPs expressed reservations toward this new model due to the lack of understanding of pharmacists’ roles and responsibilities. There is a need for awareness among private GPs on pharmacists’ roles to improve their acceptance of the integration of pharmacists into private primary healthcare clinics in Malaysia.

Factors influencing interprofessional collaboration between community pharmacists and general practitioners—A systematic review

“…Publications originated from: Australia ( n = 12), Canada ( n = 10), Cuba ( n = 1), England ( n = 3), Germany ( n = 3), Iran ( n = 1), Ireland ( n = 2), Malaysia ( n = 1), Scotland ( n = 1), Spain ( n = 1), US ( n = 1), and Wales ( n = 1). Three studies (Hashemian, Emadi, & Roohi, ; Saw, Nissen, Freeman, Wong, & Mak, ; Varela et al., ) were conducted in lower/upper‐middle income economies (Cuba, Malaysia and Iran). Sample sizes ranged from 2 to 468 participants.…”

“…Professional boundaries were commonly identified as impeding collaboration between GPs and CPs (Bradley et al., ; Dey, de Vries, & Bosnic‐Anticevich, ; Dinnie, Bond, & Watson, ; Howard et al., ; Hughes & McCann, ; Kelly et al., ; Lalonde et al., ; Laubscher, Evans, Blackburn, Taylor, & McKay, ; Legault et al., ; Löffler et al., ; Maidment et al., ; Moore, Kennedy, & McCarthy, ; Pojskic et al., ; Pottie et al., ; Rieck & Pettigrew, ; Rieck, ; Rubio‐Valera et al., ; Sake, Wong, Bartlett, & Saini, ; Saw et al., ; Tan, Stewart, Elliott, & George, , ; Van, Costa, Mitchell, Abbott, & Krass, , , ; Van, Krass, & Mitchell, ; Van, Mitchell, & Krass, ; Varela et al., ; Weissenborn, Haefeli, Peters‐Klimm, & Seidling, ; Wustmann, Haase‐Strey, Kubiak, & Ritter, ; Zillich, McDonough, Carter, & Doucette, ). Professionals’ previous experience with collaboration and a lack of clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of the GPs and CPs were the most common issues; followed by attitudes, feelings, hierarchy and power, and trust and respect.…”

Actual or Potential Extended Services Performed by Malaysian Community Pharmacists, Perceptions and Barriers Towards It’s Performance: A Systematic Review

“…This review reveals some actual or potential extended services performed in the community pharmacy practice and it reflects a tendency among CPs to transform their current practice towards more patient-oriented services [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Such patient-oriented services noted were face to face counselling [6][7][8][9][10][11], treating minor ailments [8], health promotion activities [6,8] and screening for drug-related problems [8].…”

“…However, this review reveals that CPs have potential to extend their services towards more patient-oriented [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], and enhance their image as a healthcare professional. This review indicates some perceptions towards the actual or potential extended services performed in the community pharmacy settings.…”

“…The texts involved a cross-sectional survey with semi-structured interview (n=1), cross-sectional survey (n=4), semi-structured interview (n=1) and focus group discussion (n=2). It is noted that the texts were assessing health promotion activities in community pharmacy settings and its barriers [6], GPs' perceptions of CPs' actual or potential extended services [7,8], CPs' knowledge and perception of actual or potential extended services [9,10], customers' perceptions of CPs' roles to prevent and manage major disease [11] and GPs' perception of integrating pharmacists into private primary health care clinics [12,13].…”