Choose Pharmacy- ten years of 'making a positive difference'
27th July 2023
Choose pharmacy – the NHS Wales digital records system used by pharmacists– is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer. The system began in 2013 as a platform to enable community pharmacists to record consultations, share information, provide treatment for various common ailments, and generate claims for payment.
The Choose Pharmacy platform has evolved from its original purpose of hosting the common ailments service to enabling digital medicines review, seasonal flu vaccinations (from 2016), emergency medicines supply and provision of emergency and bridging contraception. And over the last few years it has been very successful in supporting the sore throat test and treat service and national independent prescribers’ service
It was set up with the support of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales, Andrew Evans who said the service has gone well beyond what had first been envisaged,
“Choose Pharmacy has made a huge positive difference to healthcare in Wales. It has meant pharmacists have been able to provide an expanding range of clinical services to their patients, safely and promptly, with the platform there to support them providing access to medical records and a means of sharing their contribution to care with other healthcare professionals. Patients have benefitted from receiving outstanding care from their pharmacist without having to rely on other healthcare services, which may be unnecessary or less accessible”
More than 500,000 Choose Pharmacy consultations take place every year, and the number of seasonal flu vaccinations administered through the system has increased from 10,000 in October 2017 to nearly 90,000 last October.
Dan Hallett, a prescriber at an independent pharmacy in Cardiff and part-time clinical lead with Digital Health and Care Wales said Choose Pharmacy has been an innovative and ground-breaking service,
“The Common Ailment Service is now the cornerstone of the pharmacy contract. Through the platform I have access to a huge amount of information that helps my clinical decision making. So for example, I can see the summary of the patients GP records (via WGPR) in all relevant modules.
“I can receive an electronic discharge advice letter which enables my technician or myself to provide the discharge medicines review which contains the details of the patient’s medication on discharge from hospital – so we can ensure there are no ongoing problems or issues with their medication. Choose Pharmacy is helping the community pharmacy teams to show that our profession is a lot more than just sticking a label on a box.”
Choose Pharmacy has continuously developed over the last ten years and the DHCW team is now undertaking a piece of work with users to understand how the platform needs to develop to meet future needs of community pharmacy teams and the patients and public they serve.
Ifan Evans, Executive Director of Strategy at DHCW said digital tools like Choose Pharmacy enable change to happen more quickly,
“Choose Pharmacy is a really good example of putting practical and tangible digital tools into the hands of healthcare professionals, which enables them to really make a difference to the people of Wales. Congratulations on the fantastic work that’s been achieved so far in the first 10 years of Choose Pharmacy.”