Pharmacy Complete

HLP

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Planning for a sustainable future

The announcement of the funding settlement for the remainder of the 2018/19 financial year will not be well received by pharmacy owners in England. That, together with reinstatement of the temporarily postponed Category M overspend recovery, will create further cashflow and sustainability challenges for many owners, particularly independents.

Unfortunately, this was predictable on the back of almost three lost years whilst the judicial review of the previously imposed and poorly implemented funding settlement was pursued rather than asking the right questions of the right people to understand where pharmacy could support the very challenged NHS and public health systems.

We have written many times about the need to change the contractual framework and the funding formula to incentivise the right behaviours and reward quality delivery through a fairer system that is not based on a non-existent average pharmacy that benefits a few and penalises many.

To support pharmacy contractors, Pharmacy Complete has developed a unique Business Development Programme. Planning for Growth enables owners and their managers to take control of their future by developing a robust business plan.

This course, which builds on our Leadership development programmes and the platform of Healthy Living Pharmacy, provides essential business knowledge, skills and tools at a time when community pharmacy can no longer wait for someone else to create their future business model nor be so dependent on the NHS for profitable income.

Pharmacy Complete – enabling pharmacy for a healthier future

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HLP – more than a tick box exercise

When we first developed the concept of Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) and evolved the quality criteria there was no Quality Payment Scheme (QPS). Pharmacy contractors and local commissioners chose to invest the time and energy because they saw it as the right thing to do.

HLP’s roots are in change management and organisational development – developing workforce capability, ensuring premises and facilities are fit for purpose and engaging with the community to deliver consistent high quality health and wellbeing services alongside the provision of our core pharmaceutical care services.

When QPS came into the contractual funding as a public health quality mark it was inevitable that some would treat it as a tick box exercise, opting for the cheapest possible solution such as online training to meet the criteria without considering or understanding the benefits it could bring to their business or the local population.

Developing any business requires creating and sharing a vision, taking your team with you through effective leadership, engagement and empowerment, understanding local needs and aligning a business plan to those needs.

The true benefits can only be realised if the action plan to implement and build on the foundations of HLP is joined up and reaches into the hearts and minds of the whole pharmacy team to achieve the required changes in behaviours. Only then can we live and breathe the HLP ethos and make every contact count for a healthier future.

So when looking at you business and the challenges you face, please consider carefully whether you are just ticking a box with HLP or whether you really want to transform your pharmacy business to become one that is fit for the future by taking the right approach and working with the right people to help you get there.

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Quality Payment Scheme 2018/19

The criteria for the second half of the 2018/19 Quality Payment Scheme have been announced with some changes to both the Gateway and the Quality criteria. The review point for this period will be February 15, 2019.

We are pleased to see that Healthy Living Pharmacy has been retained with an additional public health capability requirement for the pharmacy team to have completed child oral health training in advance of a planned health campaign on this important topic in 2019.

In addition there is a greater focus on patient safety with three criteria covering incident reporting, risk management and an NSAID and gastro-protection audit. There is also an additional element in the clinical effectiveness criteria linked to the provision of a spacer device for all children aged 5-15 years prescribed an inhaled corticosteroid.

You can find a summary of the new scheme requirements in our updated Quality Payments Quick Guide.

Pharmacy Complete have a complete package of support to become and maintain the HLP quality mark. We can also help you build on this foundation through additional team development, leadership and business development programmes.

If we can help you, please connect with us.

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Saving lives

A patient came into the pharmacy to thank me. Nothing unusual in that although infrequent, our customers are generally very grateful for the support we give them across a range of issues – their medicines, general health and wellbeing. On this occasion though, the thank you will be remembered for the rest of my career. The gentleman came in specifically to thank me for saving his father’s life.

I remembered him clearly – he had come in on a Saturday morning wanting to speak to the pharmacist. He was in a quandary – he was concerned about his 84 year old father, who had developed cellulitis and despite being on antibiotics, wan’t improving. An hour and a half away, the son was managing the issue remotely and was being fobbed off by his dad who didn’t want to leave his caring role for his wife with dementia. A familiar story. Many questions later, I was concerned. This could likely deteriorate into either a sepsis or acute kidney injury. I advised strongly for him to call 111, not to leave it, not to feel ’embarrassed’ about ‘making a fuss’ (his words) and get to see his dad as soon as he could. He committed to this action and left.

So what happened? He came in to tell me that he followed my direction; 111 immediately called out an ambulance and his dad was admitted into hospital. Despite IV antibiotics he developed a sepsis three days later and was put into intensive care. They almost lost him but I’m pleased to say he survived and at the point of discussion, was in a ward and eager to get home and back to his wife.

What made me have this insight? The same situation played out with my late mother several years earlier. I had recently undertaken some CPD on Sepsis and I’m passionate about reducing the risk of AKI. More so, I asked questions. And listened. Aside from the intellectual assessment, I followed my instinct.

Stories like this will be happening up and down the Country. Community pharmacists and their teams make a real difference. And sometimes we save lives.