Pharmacists should meet regularly with local doctors to help achieve coordinated care, GP Nav Chana told delegates at the September, Avicenna conference in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Closer working with GPs to move some of the workload over to pharmacy can only be done through communication and meeting with GPs on a regular basis, he suggested.

For this reason, working with community pharmacy is one of the top seven priorities set by the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC), said Dr Chana, chair of the organisation. “It was for that reason that we invited Ash Soni, head of the RPS, to join our executive and we have set out a whole raft of initiatives which have been designed around GP practices and community pharmacy working together,” he said.

However, Dr Chana admitted that part of the reason why this doesn’t happen can be down to GPs themselves. “I don’t know why this is, but there is some concern from some of the GP bodies about developing a relationship between GP practices and community pharmacy,” he commented.

The NAPC has looked to encourage collaboration between GPs and pharmacy in a number of different areas, says Dr Chana, including point of care testing for coeliac disease in community pharmacy. “We are trying to do our best to demonstrate the value in working together.”