Speaking at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham this week (October 16), NHSE national pharmacy integration lead Hammaad Patel admitted that “uptake” of the depression NMS pilot and pharmacist completion of the training had been “challenging”.
Responding to a delegate who pointed out that the number of patients recruited seemed “quite low”, Mr Patel admitted that “it is true that the numbers were fewer than expected”.
He presented data showing that 193 patients had entered the pilot overall by the end of last month since it launched in late December 2022.
Read more: NHSE&I considers expanding NMS to include depression
The data also revealed that despite 156 pharmacy sites being invited to join the pilot, only 90 formally registered to join, 74 went “live” with a trained pharmacist and only 30 are currently “active”.
Mr Patel said that the training for the service expansion was “initially…seen as somewhat of a barrier” and that getting 89 individual pharmacists to complete it was “no small achievement considering the lack of capacity” in the sector.
He admitted that “capacity is an issue”, adding that because the pilot was not included in community pharmacy IT systems, pharmacies may have missed “opportunities for NMS”.
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But despite the challenges, Mr Patel said that pharmacists were “generally positive” about providing the service and revealed that an “evaluation report has been commissioned to be delivered by the end of this month”.
“Subject to positive evaluation…depression could be included as part of the advanced service in the near future,” he said.
He added that NHSE is “very much focused” on getting the new depression area of the NMS “out of the door”.
Jeopardising “the doctor-patient relationship”?
Mr Patel said that although NMS depression consultations taking a long time to complete “was a particular concern” for community pharmacists, the pilot “didn't see that”.
Pilot data showed that “the majority” of depression NMS consultations took “less than 10 minutes”, with a “maximum” time of around 21-25 minutes, he added.
But his presentation also revealed that one GP interviewed as part of the pilot had concerns that the service “might jeopardise the doctor-patient relationship”.
Read more: HSCC chair: Bring community pharmacy ‘under one roof’ with rest of primary care
NHSE revealed in 2021 that it was considering expanding the NMS to include depression as a new therapeutic area and in September last year, the pharmacy negotiator agreed that the expansion would take place over the following 18 months.
Meanwhile, chair of the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) and former pharmacy minister Steve Brine told delegates at the Pharmacy Show on Monday (October 16) that community pharmacy should fall “under one roof” with other primary care providers like GPs, dentistry and ophthalmology.
And the previous day, top pharmacists within integrated care systems (ICSs) warned delegates that pharmacists are often left out of conversations about primary care.
