A South West London project which has brought medication reviews to local pharmacies, has been shortlisted for a national award. The independent prescribing pathfinder benefits people through access to flexible, half-hour appointments. It has received extremely high ratings from patients, while alleviating demand on participating GP practices.
I think it has been brilliant to have the opportunity as pharmacists to showcase our other skills and to raise our profile”
Through the pathfinder, pharmacists prescribe medication and conduct reviews for people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol as well as women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
“I think it has been brilliant to have the opportunity as pharmacists to showcase our other skills and to raise our profile,” said Afua Thompson (pictured above), pharmacist in-charge at H E Matthews Pharmacy, Carshalton. “It has been going very well and the feedback has been so positive.”
The scheme’s success in supporting and complementing GPs, while upskilling pharmacists, has seen it shortlisted in the integrated care initiative category of the HSJ Awards. The awards are a leading celebration of healthcare excellence.
From 2026 pharmacy graduates will leave university with a prescribing qualification, giving them the same prescribing rights as doctors. In readiness for this change, NHS England offered funding to integrated care boards in 2023, encouraging them to develop independent prescribing pilot programmes.
The south west London programme operates in three community pharmacies in Sutton, each working closely with one local GP practice. According to Dina Thakker, head of medicines optimisation, the pathfinder stands out for the way it takes a joint approach to improving patient care.
“We have a workforce who can support and complement general practice pathways along with pharmacies with extended opening hours and private consultation rooms. We wanted to utilise these skills and resources to join up general practice and community pharmacies in delivering care for patients within their neighbourhoods.”
Patients want to see a clinician close to home and at a time that’s convenient to them but one of the unique selling points is that we offer a half an hour appointment.”
She explained how the programme works. “Our first two pathways were for hypertension and HRT reviews with patients who had already been diagnosed by a GP. Instead of them having follow-ups at the surgery, these are completed in the community pharmacy. The pharmacy has access to the GP IT system – so there’s a continuous record, the same as if the patient was seen in the practice.”
The third pathway, for cholesterol, sees patients who come in for their HRT or blood pressure reviews tested and started on medication, if needed.
For Dina the approach has many benefits: “Patients want to see a clinician close to home and at a time that’s convenient to them but one of the unique selling points is that we offer a half an hour appointment. That gives time to discuss the condition, but also areas around that condition such as lifestyle factors, which patients have fed back to be really helpful.”
Afua explains how it works in practice. “I’ve actually just finished a HRT consultation and the lady was so happy. Because we get extra time we can learn more about the patients and they can ask more questions – so I had enough time to explain more about menopause and she appreciated that. Through a patient-centred approach, we agreed on a plan together that would help improve her symptoms which she was really pleased about.”
The results of the scheme are impressive. For one participating GP practice, 12.5% of its hypertension patients were seen through the scheme, which had a positive impact on surgery capacity. It has also contributed to south west London delivering well within national targets for blood pressure checks in community settings.
The chemist took the time to listen to my concerns and was very thorough in their approach, addressing everything I needed. I felt genuinely cared for!”
The scheme has brought praise from patients too, 95% of whom said they’d recommend the service to family and friends. According to one Sutton patient: “The process was incredibly convenient, which made a huge difference to my busy schedule. The chemist took the time to listen to my concerns and was very thorough in their approach, addressing everything I needed. I felt genuinely cared for!”
Training and support are a crucial part of the programme. Says Afua: “Working with the GPs has been fabulous. We had one to one training with the practice to see how the consultations are done and have ongoing support.
“It has certainly created even more mutual respect between the pharmacy and GP practice, which is in line with the NHS future plan of working collaboratively with other healthcare professionals.”
Dr Wasim Baqir, head of pharmacy integration at NHS England welcomed the shortlisting. “It’s fantastic to see the south west London independent prescribing pathfinder sites showing how community pharmacy can safely and effectively support patients to reduce their cardiovascular risk through managing blood pressure and cholesterol.
“Community pharmacies already support their local neighbourhoods and the learning from these London sites will help develop future clinical services with prescribing. Good luck south west London team in the HSJ Awards.”