NHSE&I publishes Remote Consultations Guide for Pharmacy
NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) have published a Remote Consultations Guide for Pharmacy Teams. This aims to support contractors that are either planning to conduct or are already conducting remote consultations with patients. The guide is the result of joint working between NHSE&I, PSNC, the Community Pharmacy IT Group (CP ITG) and other interested parties.
Remote consultations have played a critical role during the NHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new guide includes information on:
- the different types of remote consultation;
- when these should be considered as an option;
- how to test and update your processes; and
- how to conduct remote consultations.
Reflecting on the publication of the guide, Sunil Kochhar, community pharmacist and PSNC Regional Representative, explains about how his pharmacy team had started using and benefitting from remote consultations:
“Offering remote consultations is a logical step for pharmacy teams. Their use in my pharmacy has helped to reduce the number of ‘no shows’ from patients as well as helping my team to better schedule our workload.
“We started simple and allocated protected time for remote consultations, so that the pharmacist can conduct them uninterrupted. We set-up a digital appointments system to make the booking process easier. We’re now conducting more and more remote consultations every month and are not looking back.
“I would encourage more of my colleagues to take a step into the world of remote consultations, and the new NHS guidance should help them to do so.”
Further information
Remote Consultations Guide for Pharmacy Teams
PSNC’s guidance on remote consultations
