By Pash Sonigra on October 11, 2024
Earlier in Spring, pre-election, when ICB conversations were circling around how to make up deficits quickly, Spirit and PPP collaborated with key stakeholders. Together, we produced a report outlining key recommendations to harness the power of collaboration to improve long-term health outcomes and reduce leaky spend.
However, in the light of the election and subsequent NHS updates, we’re at the coal face of new challenges and opportunities. We caught up with Mahesh to share his thoughts on the report and if the findings are still relevant to drive effective medicines optimisation.
The report in a nutshell
Whilst the original report covers a roundtable, key challenges and a case study, the main takeaways I took from the recommendations were:
Collaboration is key: NHS voices from up and down the country emphasized the need for collaboration and understanding between various health organisation stakeholders, including pharmacists, doctors, management and policy makers.
Pharmacy’s role: Pharmacists were identified as key players in driving medicines optimisation initiatives from the top level down to community care.
Policy updates: Additional funding for pharmacist services, electronic prescribing, evidence-based prescribing, and third-party review service collaboration were suggested as long-term impacts to support medicines optimisation.
Shining a light on the General Election result
As is to be expected, the results of a new party coming into No.10 and the subsequent NHS Darzi Review will likely introduce a new era of healthcare in the UK. For my peers working in the NHS, the review hasn’t flagged anything new, but it has highlighted a few areas which resonate well with our report, for example, the emphasis on better leadership, community and preventative care.
The question we have to ask as pharmacists is, could pharmacy play a leading role in rebuilding public trust and confidence in the NHS as it stands today whilst also actively ‘closing the gap’ across diverse populations?
This is a viable solution that the new government will have to weigh up against other plans they have in their back pocket. In my opinion, community care is key and should be central to long-term improvement plans, and pharmacists can lead the charge.
Do our report recommendations still ring true?
In short, yes. They are still representative of what we are up against.
However, health systems need to consider the balance between the representation of leaders vs. managers. Effective leadership is essential to driving successful medicines optimisation programmes, while managerial responsibilities aligned with strategic leadership are crucial. How will this be built into workstreams?
The report highlights the need for collaboration across NHSE and the efficiencies to join the profession as a whole. We are all already working as ICSs – how can we make that truly work to our benefit?
The ICS structure has the potential to make all the difference
For me, having a clear leadership model with an ICS Chief Pharmacist who understands all aspects of pharmacy will help. They need to make sure ICBs have this role in place with the room to balance delivering financial goals vs. the broader system engagement.
I’ve seen many ICBs replace their ‘Head of Medicines Optimisation’ with ICS Chief Pharmacists, who inevitably undertake the same role. This needs to be actively considered, as there is a lot to say about having time to engage across the system while also delivering “the job.”
ICSs need to give their teams the tools needed to set them up for success, and the best and most cost-effective way to do that is collaboration, whether that’s within the ICS or across the country with their counterparts to share best practice.
We’re here to collaborate with ICSs
Spirit Health has significant experience supporting the NHS. On a strategic level we can provide independent reviews of your current projects and pipeline. This can shine a light on a few tweaks here and there to speed up processes whilst still achieving the best care for your patients.
What you may know us for is our hugely popular Active Implementation service -where we support ICSs unlock money against their prescribing budgets. Through our national clinical team, we help medicines optimisation teams get the job done at ground level across their GPs without disturbing daily workstreams.
Why not check out what we have going on, by clicking here.
Keep in touch
If you’d like to share your thoughts on the report, why not connect Mahesh on LinkedIn? Click here to chat with him directly.
If you would like to get in touch to see how we can collaborate, please contact us here.
