Pharmacists with special interests
Linda Hirst and Marta Hildebrandt are now qualified as pharmacists with special interests (PhwSIs) and provide anticoagulation monitoring services at a weekly clinic at Wilsden surgery, with support from Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust (tPCT), Bradford Hospitals Trust and GPs.
Anticoagulants are drugs such as warfarin, used to prevent a person’s blood clotting too quickly. They reduce the rate of clotting and help manage conditions such as strokes and heart attacks. They may be given to people with a history of strokes, heart conditions including angina and heart surgery, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the vessels in the lungs.)
These drugs need to be very closely monitored and delivered by a specially trained clinician. Patients used to have to go to hospital to be monitored - for some this could be a weekly visit. However, this innovative service is delivered in a local GP practice, and so is more convenient as it’s closer to patients’ homes. The pharmacists with a special interest can monitor the patient using a quick finger-prick test carried out in the surgery which gives instant results rather than patients having to wait for their results.
Linda is currently the community pharmacist, manager and former owner of Cullingworth Pharmacy. Marta is a pharmacist currently working as a locum within Bradford and used to own Wilsden Pharmacy.
To qualify, they both had to go through a formal, nationally recognised, accreditation process which was rigorous and demanded high quality standards to be achieved to ensure patient safety.
Linda said: "We are both pleased to have become accredited. It is a step forward in bringing care closer to home and increasing patient convenience.
We are delighted to have been involved in the anticoagulation service from an early stage and are grateful to the tPCT for their support in developing pharmacy services."
Rachel Urban, community pharmacy development and clinical governance pharmacist with Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust, who helped develop the tPCT’s community pharmacist led anticoagulation service, said: "The PhwSI accreditation provides a framework through which PCTs can develop their pharmacy workforce to deliver high quality services, promote multidisciplinary working and develop the profession. Our aim now is to support pharmacists to develop specialisms in other key areas such as substance misuse, sexual health and diabetes."
There are six other community pharmacists who deliver the anticoagulation monitoring services across the district – and they will also be going through the accreditation process to become registered as pharmacists with a special interest in the future. These pharmacy-led clinics are currently also run at Horton Bank Top pharmacy in Great Horton; Low Moor surgery; Wibsey and Queensbury Medical Centre; The Ridge; Highfield Medical Centre and Windhill surgery.
Minister of State for Public Health, Dawn Primarolo, said: “I congratulate Linda and Marta. Their accreditation reflects our commitment to drive forward professional development and meet the promise made in the White Paper to see the deployment of advanced practitioner pharmacists, including those who have chosen to specialise, to accelerate markedly.
“It also supports the move towards a greater use of pharmacy and of pharmacists’ skills to deliver a safe, effective and more personalised NHS and for the public to be offered access to convenient quality care close to where they live or work.”
Chief pharmaceutical officer, Dr Keith Ridge, said: “I’m delighted to welcome England’s first Pharmacists with Special Interests and congratulate Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT. I look forward to seeing many more PhwSIs working alongside other clinical colleagues and contributing to the improving care of patients.”
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