Dewsbury, Catherine, Rodgers, Ruth and Krska, Janet (2015) Views of English pharmacists on providing public health services. Pharmacy, 3 (4). pp. 154-168. ISSN 2226-4787 (Online) (doi:10.3390/pharmacy3040154)

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Abstract

Locally-commissioned pharmacy public health services have developed in England over the last 20 years. Few studies have sought pharmacist views on commissioning and provision of public health services in general. This study sought views of community pharmacists (n = 778) in 16 areas of England on services provided, decisions about services, support, promotion and future developments, using a postal questionnaire with two reminders. Response rate was 26.5% (206). Funded public health services provided most frequently were: emergency contraception (71%), smoking cessation (62%), and supervised drug consumption (58%). Blood pressure monitoring was provided by 61% and was considered to be one of the services pharmacists perceived as being most valued by customers, but was not National Health Services (NHS)-funded. Motivation for providing public health services was professional not financial, particularly from those working in independent pharmacies. Only 35% were personally involved in deciding which services to deliver, and fewer than 20% based decisions on local public health reports. Pharmacists had positive attitudes towards providing public health services, but mixed views on support for services and their promotion. Most thought services would increase in future, but were concerned about commissioning. Both national and local support is needed to ensure future commissioning of pharmacy public health services.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	community pharmacy; public health; commissioning; primary care; pharmacist opinions
Subjects:	R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Medway School of Pharmacy
Last Modified:	22 Dec 2017 13:56
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/18424

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