Abstract
Locally-commissioned pharmacy public health services have developed in England over the last 20 years. Few studies have sought pharmacist views on commissioning and provision of public health services in general. This study sought views of community pharmacists (n = 778) in 16 areas of England on services provided, decisions about services, support, promotion and future developments, using a postal questionnaire with two reminders. Response rate was 26.5% (206). Funded public health services provided most frequently were: emergency contraception (71%), smoking cessation (62%), and supervised drug consumption (58%). Blood pressure monitoring was provided by 61% and was considered to be one of the services pharmacists perceived as being most valued by customers, but was not National Health Services (NHS)-funded. Motivation for providing public health services was professional not financial, particularly from those working in independent pharmacies. Only 35% were personally involved in deciding which services to deliver, and fewer than 20% based decisions on local public health reports. Pharmacists had positive attitudes towards providing public health services, but mixed views on support for services and their promotion. Most thought services would increase in future, but were concerned about commissioning. Both national and local support is needed to ensure future commissioning of pharmacy public health services.
Highlights
A succession of governments in England has acknowledged the potential contribution of community pharmacy in supporting public health [1,2,3,4,5]
The need for services was identified by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) staff using information provided in Local Health Profiles, published by Public Health Observatories, reports from Directors of Public Health (DPH) and a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), which incorporates information from a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)
The Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) concept was developed, which provides a framework for commissioning public health services through three levels of increasing complexity and the expertise required of pharmacy staff [14]
Summary
A succession of governments in England has acknowledged the potential contribution of community pharmacy in supporting public health [1,2,3,4,5]. The Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) concept was developed, which provides a framework for commissioning public health services through three levels of increasing complexity and the expertise required of pharmacy staff [14] Work evaluating this programme suggested that HLPs saw more clients for public health services than other pharmacies in the same geographical area [15] and a larger evaluation, published in 2013, found that HLPs delivered a wider range of services than other pharmacies [16]. Board (known as NHS England) and locally-based Clinical Commissioning Groups, the latter comprising mostly general practitioners [17] This re-structuring was anticipated to result in changes to the commissioning and provision of pharmacy public health services, which could either suffer or be enhanced. The aims were : (i) to obtain information about public health service provision and the views of community pharmacists in England on providing these services; and (ii) to assess whether service provision and views differed depending on the pharmacy ownership, pharmacist role and the number of PCT-reported commissioned pharmacy public health services
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