Case Study: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (CIOS)

What made you bid for the teach and treat funding?

CIOS decided to place a bit for the teach and treat pilot to support the upskilling of community pharmacists ahead of the 25/26 year of trainee pharmacists who will need a designated prescribing practitioner (DPP). The majority of the community pharmacists in Cornwall that work for a multiple had not had the opportunity to undertake their prescribing qualification, and for those working in the independent sector there was not a viable opportunity for them to do so. CIOS have to increase the amount of trainee pharmacists that they offer training to each year, and the only way to sustain and achieve this was to offer an opportunity to those pharmacists who didn’t have a prescribing qualification to undertake this.

Our aim is to offer the training and opportunity to source a DPP to all our community pharmacists, so that we can offer a training post in cross sector placements.

What did you do?

A proposal was sent to all General Practices to offer to partake in the Teach and Treat pilot, through an expressions of interest (EOI) form. These were collated and each EOI had a conversation with the workforce lead. Because of the geography of Cornwall and considering the areas where there are community pharmacies, we utilised all the EOIs to ensure it was accessible to all.

Some community pharmacists were based in the far East of the county, and we were able to work with the Devon system to utilise their teach and treat pilot.

We utilised a variety of health care professionals to undertake the role.

What happened?

To date 5 pharmacists have successfully completed and registered as an Independent Prescriber. 7 Pharmacists are currently undertaking the course and a further 10 are registered to start this September. There are some more that have now joined the waiting list.

Sustainability

Currently, there is no mechanism for them to use their prescribing in community pharmacy. One of the Pharmacists is working in a GP role currently whilst awaiting to start his role in a new community pharmacy. Sadly, one completed his qualification and is now working privately.

All will be asked to pay back into the system as a DPP in the future.

We have been able to produce prescribing pharmacists that will be eligible to act as DPPs for our trainee pharmacists in the coming years.

Reflections: Top Tips

It would be great to have a list of those whose prescribing training is still outstanding.