Solidarity or dissonance? A systematic review of pharmacist and GP views on community pharmacy services in the UK

Abstract

There has been a strong policy emphasis over the past decade on optimising patient-centred care and reducing general practitioners' (GPs') workload by extending community pharmacy services and collaboration between pharmacists and GPs. Our aim was to review current evidence of pharmacists' and GPs' views of extended community pharmacy services and pharmacists' roles in the United Kingdom (UK). A systematic review was undertaken looking at UK studies investigating pharmacists' and/or GPs' views of community pharmacy services or roles from 2005 to 2017. A range of databases were searched including EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), PsycINFO, Science Direct and The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). In addition, reference lists of included studies were screened and grey literature was searched. Following the application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, the quality of papers was critically analysed, findings were extracted into a grid and subjected to narrative synthesis following thematic analysis. The search strategy yielded a total of 4,066 unique papers from which 60 were included. Forty-seven papers covered pharmacists' views, nine combined both pharmacists' and GPs' views and four covered GPs' views. Study designs included interviews (n = 31, 52%), questionnaire surveys (n = 17, 28%) and focus groups (n = 7, 12%). Three main themes emerged from the data: "attitudes towards services/roles", "community pharmacy organisations" and "external influences". Pharmacists and GPs perceived a number of barriers to successful implementation and integration of pharmacy services. Moreover, collaboration between pharmacists and GPs remains poor despite the introduction of extended services. Overall, extending community pharmacy services require quality-driven incentives and joint working between community pharmacists and GPs to achieve better integration within the patient's primary care pathway.

Independent prescribing in primary care: A survey of patients', prescribers' and colleagues' perceptions and experiences

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Internet-based pharmacy and centralised dispensing: an exploratory mixed-methods study of the views of family practice staff

“…Findings, nevertheless, highlight that GPs and other staff from family practice place high value on the perceived need for communication between general practice and community pharmacy, community pharmacy’s local knowledge of patients and opportunities for direct pharmacist/patient contact. This finding is somewhat surprising in light of research that has identified poor collaboration between GPs and community pharmacists in relation to the implementation of extended services in the UK and the focus by the UK government to improve these collaborations . Possible explanations may be that GP views are not as dominant as community pharmacist views within this literature or that the views of other practice staff who may deal with community pharmacy more regularly are not usually included.…”

Understanding the impact of a new Pharmacy Sore throat Test and Treat service on patient experience: A quantitative study

“…Despite patients overall being broadly positive for pharmacists providing extended services, awareness is low [4,[24][25]. Increased collaboration between GPs and pharmacists has been identified as key to successful implementation and integration of new pharmacy services, with studies reporting these services not always perceived as beneficial or useful from the GPs' point of view [26][27].…”