Diagnostic Stewardship Award win for Choose Pharmacy team

12 June 2023

The work of the Choose Pharmacy team at Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) has been recognised at the Antibiotic Guardian Awards.

In collaboration with Cardiff University, the team won the Diagnostic Stewardship Award for their evaluation of a sore throat test and treat (STTT) service in community pharmacies.

STTT is a free service provided by over 134 community pharmacies in Wales. People can get advice about their symptoms, receive an assessment and if necessary a throat swab, also known as a point of care test (POCT). Pharmacists can then offer the right treatment, which may include antibiotics or pain relief.

Following a successful pilot in 2018, the service is now being rolled out across all health boards in Wales. The Choose Pharmacy team set up a project to measure the impact of the service following the national rollout. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also highlighted a need for more research looking at the role of point of care tests in community pharmacies, and this was incorporated into the project.

Over a period of 16 months, data from more than 11,000 consultations was extracted and analysed from electronic pharmacy records, making this one of the largest studies of its kind in the world. The results showed that more than 20% of consultations led to antibiotics being supplied, which is lower than the percentage of people who are typically given antibiotics as reported in other studies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the routine point of care testing that usually followed an assessment was removed. The team were able to compare the impact on the supply of antibiotics when testing requirements were removed during COVID-19, to pre-pandemic data. The study showed a 27% increase in the supply of antibiotics when testing was removed. Further data showed that for every 1,000 sore throat test and treat consultations, using a point of care test may result in up to 47 fewer courses of antibiotics being supplied. This led to the tests being reintroduced in December 2021.

Dr Efi Mantzourani, a Research and Evaluation Manager at DHCW and Reader in Pharmacy Practice at Cardiff University, said: “The award celebrates the hard work of an interdisciplinary team from DHCW and Cardiff University and builds on the evidence we have provided to the Welsh Government on the role of diagnostics and how they benefit pharmacy services. We are delighted our efforts have been recognised, and we will continue to work on the project. In collaboration with the Centre for Trials Research, we are currently exploring the wider impact of the service on NHS resource utilisation and the role of the service during the Strep-A outbreak in the winter of 22/23.”

The Choose Pharmacy team are continuing to develop the project, with an on-going collaboration with researchers from Cardiff University. A study is currently underway that links pharmacy, hospital, and GP data to follow patients on their journey and measure the outcomes.