Clinical Care Pharmacists in Urgent Care in North East England: A Qualitative Study of Experiences after Implementation

Our objective was to explore the implementation of a novel NHS England (NHSE)-funded pilot project aimed at deploying clinical pharmacists in an integrated urgent care (IUC) setting including the NHS 111 service. Eight integrated urgent care clinical pharmacists (IUCCPs) within the participating North East of England Trusts. Individuals participated in semi-structured 1-to-1 interviews by an experienced qualitative researcher, either face-to-face or via the telephone. Each recording was transcribed, and the five stages of framework analysis (familiarisation, identifying a thematic framework, indexing, charting, mapping and interpretation) took place to establish emerging themes. All interviews took place between November 2018-February 2019. Four higher-order themes were identified: 1. Personality Traits, 2. Integration, 3. Benefits, 4. Training. The IUCCP programme is an innovative NHSE initiative. It provides an opportunity to extend the role of clinical pharmacists into the hard-pressed clinical environment of urgent and emergency care. Our evaluation has highlighted the potential for this professional group to contribute clinically in this area. Better communications, standard operating procedures and induction will improve how individuals develop in these novel roles.