General practitioners’ perceptions of the roles of community pharmacists and their willingness to collaborate with pharmacists in primary care

Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice

Research

Helen E. Smith¹  Yang Fang¹  Xuan Rong Thong¹  Shawn Lien Ler Tan²  Joy Boon Ka Chong³  Clivia Yao Hua Yap³ 

[1] Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, 11 Mandalay Road, 308232, Singapore, Singapore;Ministry of Health Holdings Pte Ltd, 1 Maritime Square, #11-25, 099253, Singapore, Singapore;Watson’s Personal Care Stores Pte Ltd, 300 Beach Road, The Concourse, #39-01/04, 199555, Singapore, Singapore;

关键词: Community pharmacists;    General practitioners;    Interprofessional collaboration;    Patient care;    Primary care;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40545-023-00613-5

 received in 2023-01-24, accepted in 2023-09-16,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCommunity pharmacists (CPs) have the capacity to contribute to patient care given their expertise in medication and accessibility to residents in the community. However, multidisciplinary patient care programmes where CPs collaborate with general practitioners (GPs) in patient care is rare in Singapore despite increasing healthcare demand.ObjectivesThis study explores GPs’ perceptions of CPs’ current roles and GPs’ ideas for and attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration.MethodsSemi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 private GPs from August to December 2020 via an online video-chat platform. GPs were recruited from the Primacy Care Research Network (pcRn), primary care networks, and using snowballing strategies. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded thematically.ResultsCurrent working relationships between GPs and CPs appeared amicable but limited. GPs appreciate the existing roles of CPs: dispensing drugs not stocked in their practices and clarifying prescription details. Still, GPs appeared to rarely consider collaborative working. GPs acknowledged that CPs could enhance patient care with initiatives including medication reconciliation and advising on using medical devices. It was suggested that CPs could coordinate the purchase of drugs for primary care networks to improve GPs’ inventory management, but less enthusiasm was expressed for clinical collaborations with CPs. Major concerns about GP–CP clinical collaborations included direct competition with GPs’ own business interests, perceived low acceptability of pharmacy-led services by patients (citing extra time and cost), threat to continuity of care and the absence of a shared patient electronic health record system. Current funding mechanisms do not enable reimbursement of clinical services provided by CPs. Adoption of telemedicine technologies and governmental financial support were identified as possible enablers of GP–CP collaboration.ConclusionsGPs saw potential in CPs’ increased involvement in patient care, but perceived multiple barriers. Strategies focusing on overcoming these barriers could enable GP–CP collaboration to enhance patient care.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Dr. Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar and Auckland UniServices Ltd. 2023