Jay Voralia, Lead Primary Care Pharmacist (South East Area) at NHS Surrey, explains his role on the Medicines Management team and how they can support the GP Consortium.
Everyone in NHS organisations are facing a great deal of change and the challenge of uncertainty can be daunting to some but exciting to others. The one constant theme for everyone is improving outcomes for patients. This is the main ethos for myself and the Medicines Management (MM) team who are providing support for ESyDoc.
I am excited at the opportunity to work with GPs within ESyDoc to develop services and improve outcomes for patients. My team have worked extremely well with local GPs in the past and have supported them with the management of medicines and the prescribing budget.
As we move towards GP Consortia taking on the responsibilities of commissioning, the medicines management team model of support in practices has been held as a success and I am keen to develop this further by working with ESyDoc to deliver their plans under the QIPP agenda.
The MM Team can in the future help support ESyDoc in all aspects of the commissioning cycle; from analysing of prescribing data and of the market with respect to medicines, planning stage (gap analysis, building business cases and devising care pathway), Implementing stage (procurement of medicines and market development) and finally reviewing (monitoring and adherence). The experience we have in working with our colleagues in secondary care will be a great asset for ESyDoc when making joint decisions about drug usage in secondary care, at the interface and of course in primary care.
Other areas where we can support the GPs are in clinical governance, patient safety and general management issues, in order to drive efficiency.
The new NHS horizon provides new opportunities for the MM team to be able provide support towards a holistic approach in managing care pathways and not focus on just one particular aspect of care.
