An exploration of the potential impact of primary care groups on pharmaceutical practice

AIM • To describe the management of prescribing within primary care groups (PCGs) and to explore the potential impact of PCGs on pharmaceutical practice. DESIGN • Self-completion questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. SUBJECTS AND SETTING • Board members of a stratified, random sample of 53 PCGs in England. RESULTS • 40 PCGs (94%) had set up prescribing subgroups and 23 (44%) had community pharmacists as members of these groups. Pharmacists were providing prescribing advice to 45 PCGs (87%); 17 of these (38%) were employing sessional community pharmacists. The most common source of funding for the pharmaceutical advice was "top slicing" the prescribing budget. Prescribing targets and priorities commonly reflected a combination of national priorities and a local desire to make cost savings on some specific areas of presrcibing. Medicines management and better use of community pharmacists were identified by many board members as key areas for development. CONCLUSION • Most PCGs had made significant progress in developing policy and practice to manage their prescribing costs. The increasing involvement of pharmacists in prescribing policy, particularly those from community practice, reflects a commitment to a multidisciplinary approach to medicines management in primary care. One of the key challenges for the future will be to achieve the right balance between cost constraints and quality of prescribing.