Pharmacy First myth busting series (#2)
This is the second of a series of articles to tackle some of the misconceptions around Pharmacy First. The articles will cover a variety of aspects of Pharmacy First and aims to myth bust, to increase understanding of the service.
An 18 year old is eligible for an acute otitis media clinical pathway consultation.
Wrong! The clinical pathway for acute otitis media pathway states that this is for children aged 1 to 17 years. Therefore anyone 18 years and above is excluded from the clinical pathway.
Distance selling pharmacies can provide acute otitis media clinical pathway consultations.
Wrong! Distance selling pharmacies (DSPs) are excluded from providing the acute otitis media clinical pathway as it requires otoscope examination of the patient’s ear and DSPs can only provide clinical pathways consultations via a good quality video consultation (not face-to-face) conducted by a pharmacist who is at the pharmacy premises.
I can choose the appropriate quantity to supply to a patient when providing them with a medicine under a clinical pathway consultation.
Wrong! The Patient Group Direction (PGD) for the medicine that is being supplied states the dosing instructions and duration of treatment. Therefore, pharmacists should consult the relevant PGD to calculate the amount of medicine that should be supplied.
Patients who are electronically referred but do not meet the gateway criteria for the clinical pathway strand of the service should be rejected.
Wrong! If a patient is electronically referred for a clinical pathway condition but does not meet the eligibility criteria, they can instead be seen under the minor illness strand of the service.
For example, if a patient is electronically referred for earache but is an adult, they would not be eligible for the acute otitis media clinical pathway, but the pharmacist could provide the minor illness strand of the service for this patient.
