Medicines Optimisation for Respiratory Patients: The Establishment of a New Consultant Respiratory Pharmacist Role in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Medicines optimisation for those with respiratory conditions can have a significant impact on clinical outcomes and substantial efficiency gains for health care. Consultant pharmacists are experts working at the top of their specialism in four main pillars of practice, namely clinical care, leadership, education and training, and research and development. A consultant respiratory pharmacist has recently been appointed at a large Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland to provide expert care and clinical leadership for the medicines optimisation agenda with regards to respiratory care in Northern Ireland. Alongside clinical practice, leadership, and service development, emphasis will be placed on monitoring and evaluating the work of the consultant respiratory pharmacist with a view to gathering the necessary evidence to support the case for further investment in such consultant pharmacist posts in the region. This short communication article outlines some of the clinical and economic factors associated with the decisions to invest in the consultant pharmacist model of care in Northern Ireland

The Development of an Enhanced Palliative Care Pharmacy Service during the Initial COVID-19 Surge

“…The model was developed in 2009 and is, therefore, likely to underestimate the current healthcare costs, and it is unclear if this model is applicable to the PEOLC population. However, its use is established within pharmacy services in Northern Ireland and was warranted in the absence of a suitable alternative, with mitigation measures employed to compensate [24][25][26]. Despite these limitations, economic analysis of the interventions demonstrates that not only does the palliative care pharmacist influence the appropriateness and safety of medicine use in this patient population, there is also likely to be an associated cost saving.…”

“…This model refers to all medicine-related costs. The model was established to evaluate other pharmacist-led services in Northern Ireland and is linked to the Eadon intervention ranking scale [25,26]. Each Eadon-graded intervention can be assigned an associated cost avoidance as illustrated in Table 2.…”