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Activities: Research

Building the Community-Pharmacy Partnership
We joined forces with the South East Antrim Locality Pharmacy Group (SEALPG) and the Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) to find out what different communities understand about pharmacy services and what pharmacy services they would like to see in place in the future.

Community group representatives from Ballyclare, Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus were involved. The focus groups, held in local community centres, identified community understanding and need in relation to local pharmacy services.

Discussions indicated that the community saw the local pharmacist as someone who provides medication, gives advice and retails non-medication related products.

The main five areas recommended for future service development were:

	Tablet management
	Men's health
	Pharmacist-led advice drop-in centre within the community
	On-call-pharmacist with a possible attachment to the doctor-on-call service
	The use of pharmacist expertise to link up with ongoing and established community projects

Smaller issues raised by the community included:

	Provision of ready made up tablet boxes and easy access caps
	Supply of hearing aid batteries
	Extension of the role of the pharmacist to take blood pressures
	Improved telecommunications and computer technology
	Improved access to information leaflets and disability products

Casualty Watch
December 2001 saw Casualty Watch drawing to a close. This exercise took place each quarter on a Monday afternoon to monitor whether the activity of patients in the four Accident and Emergency Departments met the requirements of the Patients' Charter. We also checked whether patients who were to be admitted from A & E had waited longer than two hours for a hospital bed.

Waiting times in A&E Departments in Northern Ireland were shorter than those in England. A&E Departments in Wales had the shortest waiting time average.