Practice nurse appointments being derailed by medicine shortages

Practice nurses are navigating patient anxieties and derailed appointments because of a shortage of medicines, a conference has heard.

Speaking at the new Community Pharmacy and General Practice Conference, hosted by Nursing in Practice’s publisher Cogora this week, deputy director of nursing at a primary care provider in Somerset Lucy Brotherton explained the ‘high implications’ medicines shortages are having on general practice nursing teams.

Her comments came during a session which brought together perspectives from nursing, pharmacy and general practice managers on the issue of medicine shortages.

It comes after the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which supported the Cogora event, issued a warning that medicine shortages are some of the ‘most severe’ GPs and pharmacists have ever seen.

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Ms Brotherton said the situation ‘creates a lot of anxiety’ for patients who, in some cases, see their practice nurse as a ‘first point of contact’ when a medicine has been changed or if they have not been able to access a medication or vaccination.

She cited examples of appointments for long-term conditions being derailed by concerns around medicines shortages.

‘By the time that patient actually comes to that room, they are not focused on what they should be attending for,’ said Ms Brotherton, who is a practice nurse by background.

‘Their main concern is about sorting out those medicines. So, it’s really having an impact on that consultation and it’s having an impact on the time taken away from that consultation, the time that then is created for the GP to sort that out, and those patients, which [are] passed from pillar to post, they come in quite irate.’

She noted that while there has been an increase in nurse prescribers, there is still ‘a large cohort’ who are not, meaning time often needs to be taken to escalate concerns to a GP.

For Ms Brotherton, key to the situation was the need for improved ‘direct communication’ between community pharmacies and GP practices – particularly around medicine stocks and access.

‘When that [communication] breaks down, that has a real impact on our patients,’ she said.

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‘Patients shouldn’t be navigating this complex system on their own.

‘They rely on us as health professionals to support them through this process.

‘If we can’t get our communication correct on the ground, that has a direct impact on our patients, and unfortunately it impacts those greatest that are already struggling – those that have multiple long-term conditions, learning disabilities, struggle to get from A to B to these pharmacies and GPs – so that direct communication is probably a real key measure of success for both us as a system and our patients.’

She stressed the need for ‘real-time data’ so that nurses and health professionals have ‘access across general practice and our local pharmacies to actually see what is currently available or not available’.

‘I think that would really save a lot of that uncertainty and that breakdown in communication between general practice and our pharmacy colleagues,’ she added.

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Earlier in the conference, the Royal College of Nursing’s primary care nursing lead Kim Ball also signalled the need for a better direct line of communication between practice nurses and pharmacists.

Ms Ball suggested there was a ‘real scope and desire’ for practice nurses and community pharmacies to work more closely together, but she cited barriers including funding and communication issues.