Lord Darzi’s independent report into the state of the NHS provided a sobering assessment of the country’s health service, which will require significant action to remedy. But for many, the report and the government’s commitment to be guided by its findings are signs that primary care is getting the spotlight it needs.
Funding must shift into the community to better serve patients and facilitate a pivot towards preventive care but for practices to manage this seismic shift in responsibility, they need the right resources in place to manage complex long-term conditions.
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This is where innovative solutions can make a real impact and enable greater productivity and multidisciplinary working, so practices feel empowered to meet these challenges.
What are we doing to help?
FDB has already been pioneering this approach across medicines optimisation, through our latest solution, FDB AnalyseRx. Integrated within the clinical system, AnalyseRx allows primary care teams to identify and action medicines optimisation opportunities across a patient population to prioritise patients who have urgent needs or gaps in their care and coordinate the next steps.
We’ve seen AnalyseRx used to successfully address many of the NHS’s current medicines optimisation challenges. With stroke prevention high on the national agenda, AnalyseRx has helped to ensure patients with atrial fibrillation are on appropriate anticoagulation, flagging those who may not be receiving any despite risk factors. Using live data, the solution also automatically identifies patients whose drug safety monitoring is overdue, prioritising those at greatest risk and those with the longest time elapsed since their last test.
Teams can then delegate tasks such as scheduling appointments without having to leave the clinical system and collaborate on patient lists to leverage skills and capacity without exporting endless spreadsheets that risk becoming quickly outdated.
Workflow management across integrated care boards, primary care networks, and prescribing teams while minimising the risk of hospital admissions is a crucial step to meeting the growing demands on GP practices, but we’ve also heard first-hand about the time it can save.
In one case, a PCN pharmacy technician told us how she was able to reduce cardiovascular risk through lipid management. Using AnalyseRx she identified and contacted eligible patients across multiple surgeries, increasing the percentage of patients on a lipid-lowering therapy for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease from 64 per cent to 95 per cent.
Not only did she save time on administrative tasks, including laborious searches, but she also diverted this work away from other clinical staff, allowing pharmacists, nurses, and GPs to focus on more urgent and complex issues.
While we anticipate any upcoming reforms to be accompanied by funding, we know that practices are already grappling with a stretched workforce under immense pressure. At FDB we’ve worked closely with ICBs and PCNs to develop a solution that can help them collaborate at scale, manage resources and prepare for the future.
We’re continuing to develop AnalyseRx and working to enhance our coverage across all GP clinical systems. If you’re interested in learning more or taking part in a trial, please get in touch with us at: contact@fdbhealth.com
