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Following a successful pilot, a 'Carer-friendly' pharmacy model is being fine-tuned for future roll-out.

The Department of Health funded the four-month pilot that took place between November 2014 and February 2015, involving 37 pharmacies, nine LPCs and 10 local carers service providers. The evaluation by the University of Leeds coincided with the results of a nationwide survey that revealed unpaid carers rate their local pharmacy as the most ‘carer-friendly’ of all health service providers.

During the pilot, pharmacies referred 247 carers to their local carers service and handed out leaflets to carers who opted to ‘find out more’. In the light of the evaluation and detailed feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, the Carer-friendly Pharmacy model is now being fine-tuned for future roll-out. Julia Ellis, development manager at the Carers Trust will present details of the next stage at the Pharmacy Show on October 19.

Pharmacy teams involved in the pilot were also able to highlight pharmacy services that could be helpful to carers such as MURs and home delivery services. And because PharmOutcomes software was used to facilitate referrals, pharmacies were also able notify the carer’s GP that one of their patients was a carer so that a note could be added to the carer’s medical records. 

"Today, with an Advanced Service for flu vaccinations in pharmacies now in place for which unpaid carers are eligible, the case for identifying carers in pharmacies is even more compelling," said Ms Ellis. "However, as the pharmacy teams who took part in the pilot will confirm, as well as making sense from a business perspective, supporting carers also enabled them to make a real difference to people they already knew were struggling to cope. And in some cases, the difference they made was literally life-changing."