Community Pharmacy PCN Integration Lead Introduction
It is a local and a national priority for community pharmacies to be full partners within Primary Care Networks (PCNs), taking on expanded roles to protect public health and support urgent care and medicines safety.
In Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE) we want to do even more to have community pharmacies as full partners in Primary Care Networks. Therefore, we were successful in a proposal funded by Health Education England to trial having part-time community pharmacy integration leads within our 34 PCNs. The aim of this is to build collaborative relationships so that pharmacies, general practices and others can better work together for the benefit of patients in the longer term.
During May and June 2023, we invited community pharmacy professionals to put themselves forward as Community Pharmacy (CP) PCN Integration Leads. We have now successfully recruited all CP PCN Integration Leads to work two days a month (with the exception of August and December) across all 34 PCNs in HWE until early June 2024.
A list of recruited CP PCN Integration Leads is available to download below.
NB Some leads are still in the process of being confirmed and this document will be updated in due course.
What are the responsibilities of the CP PCN Lead within their PCN:
Building strong relationships with and between community pharmacies.
Creating regular communication channels between PCNs, GP practices, and community pharmacies.
Seeking to improve communication and collaboration between the PCN, GP practices, and community pharmacies.
Aligning priorities and agreeing on ways to improve patient pathways.
Communicating with relevant partners as appropriate to support implementation of changes and service development.
Reaching consensus amongst community pharmacies on all decisions where possible.
The Community Pharmacy PCN Integration Lead is a valuable member of the PCN team, but they have a specific role to play. Their responsibilities are focused on building relationships, fostering communication and collaboration, identifying, and advocating for the needs of community pharmacies, and supporting the development and implementation of services and initiatives locally.
What are NOT the responsibilities of the CP PCN Integration Lead within their PCN:
Managing the performance of individual community pharmacies.
Distributing pharmaceutical messages from other providers and bodies.
Acting as the representative body for all community pharmacies within the local area.
Making decisions on behalf of other community pharmacies or coercing community pharmacies to act in a certain way.
Providing clinical advice or services.
Providing financial or administrative support to community pharmacies.
The Community Pharmacy PCN Integration Lead is a facilitator and advocate for community pharmacies, but they are not responsible for the responsibilities outlined above as this is outside the scope of their role.
If you have any questions, comments, feedback or would like to get a message out to all CP PCN leads please get in touch with allison.mccrory@nhs.net or helen.musson1@nhs.net.