Several months’ of work between Alphega Pharmacy and six Salveo Health pharmacies in Kent in developing a pharmacy-led atrial fibrillation service, was close to failure because of the difficulty of securing funding from local commissioners, delegates at an Alphega Pharmacy conference in Telford heard this weekend.

However, independent pharmacist Sunil Kochhar of Regent Pharmacy, Gravesend, involved in the scheme, said that patients who were picked up as needing further investigation in the AF screening service were extremely grateful, but commissioners have not yet been persuaded to commission the service.

‘We’ve been pushed from pillar to post. The CCG seemed reluctant to take any interest in the trial of the AF screening service, even though the costs of this trial were paid for by our pharmacies and Alphega Pharmacy,’ he said.

But the team are not ‘giving up’, he said. ‘We just need to find a way of overcoming the many obstacles that seem to stand in the way of getting local funding.’ Alphega’s Neil Scobie, pharmacist consultant, described the experience as ‘frustrating’, although some discussions are now underway for another potential service.

However, lessons have been learned, said Alphega’s Clare Clark, although the odds are stacked against CCGs and local authorities exploring new ideas with pharmacy, she suggested.

‘Commissioning bodies are generally conservative. They are typically afraid to be innovative unless there is a high level, national, push. Most will wait for somebody else to take the lead.’ Approaching local commissioners first to find out about their ideas for working with pharmacy, rather than approaching them with a specific service proposal, may be better, she said.

Subsequent conversations with another primary care organisation has suggested that pharmacy-led services for childhood obesity and hepatitis b for intravenous drug users would be useful, and the Alphega plans to develop service guidance for members around these two areas later this year.

Mr Scobie told P3 that Alphega Pharmacy would continue to look at promoting local commissioning for pharmacy – for the benefit of all pharmacies in an area, not just Alphega members. But without more national services, or national service specifications for commissionable services, it remains difficult for community pharmacy.