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Pharmacy technician Vicky is catching up with pharmacist Eva in the staff room.

“Now things feel a bit more back to normal and before we start getting really busy in the run up to Christmas, I think we need to really focus on training for all team members,” says Eva.

“Yes, I was thinking the same,” replies Vicky. “We are well underway with flu jabs now, but a reminder of the other vaccinations that people should be having is probably a good idea.”

“Oh yes, we should definitely cover that, and I’ll ask Adil to take the lead,” responds Eva. “But I was hoping that you could do something on the NICE Quality Standard that came out recently? It’s on promoting health and wellbeing – have you come across it?”

“Umm…” comes Vicky’s reply.

Answer

The NICE Quality Standard Eva is referring to is called ‘Community pharmacies: promoting health and wellbeing’. It describes four priority areas for improvement now that community pharmacy services are returning to normal following the sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are:

1. Provision of advice and education for people either with long-term health conditions or looking more generally for support to improve their health and wellbeing. This should be done through informal conversations that invite patients and customers to not only ask questions of pharmacy teams but also reflect upon how their own behaviours may be affecting their health, with a view to putting in place lifestyle modifications such as weight loss, reducing alcohol intake and stopping smoking. There is also an emphasis on signposting to other services that may be of benefit, as well as the delivery of brief interventions
2. Raising awareness of the skills, knowledge and services present in community pharmacy teams, not just to members of the public but also to other health and social care practitioners, in order to maximise the potential for the sector to have a greater role in primary care
3. Better integration of community pharmacy into local health and social care pathways through partnership working and collaboration. This will offer people effective, convenient and accessible services, as well as reducing duplication of work and relieving pressure on other providers
4. Making use of the knowledge pharmacy teams have of their local communities to develop health and wellbeing interventions that are relevant to the population served, and in particular reduce health inequalities.

The bigger picture

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes Quality Standards with a view to improving the care provided to, or commissioned for, patients. The organisation recommends that healthcare providers – which includes community pharmacy teams – compare the care they offer with the standards described in the document in order to identify priority areas for improvement and plan accordingly.

Quality Standards are reviewed by NICE once a year to ensure they remain up to date.