‘’Excellent!’’
Our UK pharmacy event was a huge success. Attendees from 11 groups representing over 620 pharmacies were given a good overview of the new Community Pharmacy Contractual Frame Work (CPCF) by Rob Darracott. By using more efficient dispensing methods, Andy Chilton and Mike Patel discussed the methods for meeting challenges and the lack of time in branches to provide new services. Gary Warner’s presentation and the ensuing debate around what these services will be and how to rise to the challenge was lively and positive. Adele Curran tied it all together by showing how the effective use of internal data can make the dispensing and management of branches more efficient. She also showed how external data such as the public NHS data can facilitate collaborative services with other healthcare professionals.
Many of the attendees said they found the thinking time will feed into their strategy and they picked up a number of good ideas. The overall feedback from our attendees was good and the majority said that they are looking forward to our next event in Birmingham 2020.
Rob Darracott, Editor of P3 Pharmacy Magazine, opened the event with an insightful review on the 5-year contract supporting the NHS Long Term Plan which will transform the role of community pharmacy within the UK healthcare system. After contextualising the key drivers for this major change, Rob addressed the possible challenges for community pharmacies and advised them to take action, including looking into the opportunities under the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS). Delivery of the CPCS is going to be watched carefully by the NHS and the sector’s performance will influence future NHS policy. He made a call to action to community pharmacy to deliver this service for the good of the sector.
Catch Rob's presentation HERE: 'The Long Term Plan and/or The Five Year Deal?
Andy Chilton, Director of Velresco Group Ltd, shared some tips of his findings on improving productivity in pharmacies. As community pharmacies will be paid less for doing the same amount of dispensing after the payment cuts, there is an urgent need to cut down the time that pharmacists take to process scripts. Speeding up the dispensing process will not only free up pharmacists’ time for more services but also increase patient satisfaction and loyalty, and both lead to a more profitable business going forward. Andy offered to meet with any of the audience for a free initial consultation.
Catch Andy's presentation HERE: 'Using software enabled studies to free up Pharmacist time!'
Mayank Patel, Director of Pearl Chemists Ltd, demonstrated best practice to improve dispensing efficiency by investing in automation. He shared how the robots help to speed up the dispensing process and meanwhile, reduce the risk of human errors. The benefits that Mike got out of this automation journey included; it freed up staff time to deliver more services and it improved patient safety. After seeing the satisfactory results that automation brought to Mike and his team, they are now exploring further automation options. Mike supported Andy’s view that dispensing efficiency should be explored before making automation choices.
Catch Mayank's presentation HERE: 'Our Automation Journey'
Gary Warner, Managing Partner of Pinnacle Health (PharmOutcomes), emphasised the importance of delivering more clinical services for community pharmacies following the NHS Long Term Plan, especially those commissioned by the NHS. This is the best way to replace the possible decrease of dispensing income due to the payment cuts. Automation is one of the key solutions that every pharmacy should explore, he did acknowledge that direct investment is beyond the capability of many independents. Gary also highlighted that using the right tool for reporting and KPI management will be very helpful in achieving success. He tantalised his audience with plans Pinnacle are looking at to support the new contract.
Catch Gary's presentation HERE: 'The New Importance of Clinical Services'
Adele Curran, Chief Customer Officer of Real World Analytics, tied the content of the day together and showed how data can assist time management. She explained how pharmacies can use their data to streamline many of the processes to keep labour costs down, which allows more time to do the new services. With the right reporting tool, pharmacies can easily follow up on the performance of all their branches and make sure that the targets are met without going through the challenging process of pulling reports together. Using other data such as the NHS public data and integration with PharmOutcomes will aid collaborative service deliver.
Adele showcased how RWA’s new FP34 prediction module helps its customers to predict their payments, calculate real margins each month, and show where groups have not been paid correctly by the NHS. Before this option was available pharmacy groups spent many hours at end of each month calculating payments and this method is much less accurate than RWA’s module. Other modules providing predictions on potential services will give pharmacies more time to focus on new services.
Catch Adele's presentation HERE: 'How to work Smarter not Harder!'
If you missed out on this event, that’s okay because we will be announcing the date for our next event soon! We will be taking this event to Birmingham in Q1/Q2 2020. Register your interest HERE or email your company & name to pharmacy@realworldanalytics.com and you will get an exclusive invitation to book in to the event before anyone else.
Feedback from the event:
89% said the content was organized and easy to follow
89% said the content covered will be useful in their work
85% satisfaction rate for the event overall
‘’Well done, very relevant content. All speakers were exceptional.’’
‘’Excellent!’’
‘’It was a very good event.’’
