Conference

Pharmacy needs to look at ways of personalising patient care and bringing together physical health, mental health and social care if it is to help the NHS meet its ambitions and truly “make every contact count”, Hemant Patel, secretary of North East London LPC, told the Avicenna conference.

“One in four people coming into your pharmacy will have mental health problems, but pharmacy has made little effort to bring together the treatments for physical health and mental health problems,” he said. Pharmacy teams should view the patient as “a whole person” and not “just a diabetic or asthmatic”, for example.

“Personalised care presents challenges to patients and clinicians but it is the cheapest form of treatment,” he claimed. “We need passion and commitment and a plan. Pharmacists should think of themselves as team leaders so that commissioners have confidence in them.”