Editorials

Integrating pharmacy fully into the primary care team

Since teamwork, especially in small, cohesive task specific groups,¹ is the central plank on which primary care is now being built, greater interaction between pharmacists and general practitioners could be fruitful. Nevertheless, personal communications from ministers and civil servants reiterate the traditional view that "the separation of prescribing and dispensing ensures that the skills of doctors and pharmacists are used to best effect and that the public has access to both professions." It is time that these attitudes received the same scrutiny that the rest of primary care has received, especially as the cost of distributing medicines through pharmacies accounts for 30-40% of the total medicines bill.²

Changes in dispensing are under way in other countries,³ involving, for example, mail order. But these fail to build on potential professional collaboration, the desirability of which was implied in a Nuffield report of 1986: "closer relations between GPs . . . [Full text of this article]

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Integrating pharmacy into the primary care team

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• Ford, S. (1997). Pilot trial of integrating pharmacy into primary care in rural areas is needed. BMJ 314: 607-607 [Full text]  
• Erwin, J., Britten, N., Jones, R. (1996). General practitioners' views on over the counter sales by community pharmacists. BMJ 312: 617-618 [Full text]  
• Crowe, G, Harris, C J, Forster, G E, Goh, B T (1995). Integrating pharmacy into the primary care team. BMJ 311: 753-753 [Full text]  
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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

A glimmer of hope

Steven Ford
bmj.com, 28 Nov 2000 [Full text]