Real pressure. Practical delivery.

The challenge

Alerts required consistent review, patient identification, clinical action and clear evidence of what had been completed across all three practices.

How PSN delivered it

• Reviewed incoming MHRA alerts and clinical requirements.
• Identified affected patient cohorts across the PCN.
• Completed or coordinated required pharmacist actions.
• Recorded numbers identified, reviewed and actioned.
• Created a live shared document accessible from the clinical system.

The outcome

Clinicians now have a live system icon linking directly to an up-to-date document showing the alert, the required response, work completed and the number of patients actioned.

The challenge

PCNs required a consistent team to understand the annual requirements, identify relevant patients and complete pharmacist-led interventions within programme timescales.

How PSN delivered it

• Reviewed the annual GPOP specifications and pharmacist actions.
• Built and managed patient worklists and clinical searches.
• Completed reviews, interventions and follow-up activity.
• Maintained oversight of progress and outstanding cohorts.
• Worked with practices to evidence delivery and completion.

The outcome

PSN has solely managed the pharmacist-actionable work for a number of PCNs, supporting them to achieve the relevant targets year after year.

The challenge

Prescribing requests were taking up to four days to process, creating avoidable patient contact, follow-up work and pressure across the practice team.

How PSN delivered it

• Created a single pharmacist-led prescribing workflow.
• Reviewed acute and other prescribing requests each working day.
• Resolved appropriate requests independently as prescribers.
• Escalated clinical issues through agreed pathways.
• Maintained continuity through the wider PSN team.

The outcome

The standard turnaround reduced from approximately four days to within 24 hours, improving responsiveness for patients and reducing pressure on the wider practice.

The challenge

Practices required additional day-to-day pharmacist capacity, while the employed PCN team also needed protected time to deliver network priorities and face-to-face work.

How PSN delivered it

• Agreed a clear division between practice and PCN work.
• Used PSN remote pharmacists for practice-level clinical activity.
• Protected the physical team for PCN and on-site priorities.
• Introduced shared pathways for communication and escalation.
• Adapted capacity as demand changed across the network.

The outcome

The PCN retained the value of its physical team while gaining flexible remote capacity, allowing both practice and network work to progress without competing for the same pharmacist time.

The challenge

The existing service experienced frequent disruption from annual leave, sickness and training days, leaving practices without consistent pharmacist availability.

How PSN delivered it

• Planned pharmacist coverage across every working day.
• Allocated work across the wider PSN pharmacist team.
• Managed annual leave, sickness and training internally.
• Provided clinical supervision and operational oversight.
• Delivered the agreed pharmacy workstreams across the PCN.

The outcome

Practices gained a consistent pharmacist service every working day, with leave, sickness and training managed by PSN rather than disrupting delivery.

The challenge

Organisations needed to implement prescribing changes across large patient cohorts without creating additional pressure for GPs or compromising clinical review.

How PSN delivered it

• Reviewed the agreed switch criteria and clinical guidance.
• Identified suitable patients through searches and record review.
• Completed pharmacist-led clinical checks before changing treatment.
• Arranged monitoring, communication and follow-up where required.
• Tracked progress and exceptions across the patient cohort.

The outcome

Practices were able to implement agreed medicines optimisation programmes in a structured and clinically managed way, without transferring the full workload to their GP team.

The challenge

Medication reviews, long-term condition checks, blood tests and monitoring were often completed at different times, creating duplication for both patients and practice teams.

How PSN delivered it

• Reviewed existing recall and medication review processes.
• Aligned reviews to long-term condition and birth-month cycles.
• Identified required blood tests and monitoring before consultations.
• Combined medicines optimisation with relevant condition reviews.
• Created clearer follow-up and recall arrangements.

The outcome

Practices gained a more coordinated annual review process, reducing unnecessary duplication and making clinical activity easier to plan across the year.

The challenge

Large volumes of outstanding work can be difficult to prioritise and may continue growing when practices lack protected pharmacist capacity.

How PSN delivers it

• Validates the outstanding workload and removes duplication.
• Prioritises work according to clinical risk and urgency.
• Allocates defined cohorts across the PSN pharmacist team.
• Tracks completed, outstanding and escalated actions.
• Transitions from recovery work into a sustainable process.

The outcome

Practices receive a structured recovery plan with visible progress, clear clinical priorities and a route towards maintaining the service once the backlog has reduced.