Case Study: Pharmacist deployment in customer facing roles

Pharmacists, including primary care Clinical Pharmacists, are becoming an increasingly important stakeholder across the NHS. CHASE wanted to give its clients a new way of engaging with them and meet their needs.

As part of a pilot, CHASE deployed experienced, qualified pharmacists experienced in primary or community care to fully leverage the benefits of peer to peer engagement for a client.

Not only would the mutual recognition of a pharmacist talking to a peer leverage better access, but a more appropriate positioning of conversations would leverage a better understanding of PCN and local NHS objectives and priorities, better insights and influence towards therapy and patient management, resulting in greater product adoption.

The pilot included 2 Pharmacist Account Managers deployed via CHASE contracts for 12 months.

As a result of the resounding success of the pilot, the team has trebled to 6 people as it moves into year two. During the pilot, CHASE Pharmacist Account Managers have added tremendous value and insight in the following ways:

• Mapping practice based Clinical Pharmacists in Primary Care Networks
• Effectively engaging and influencing primary care Clinical Pharmacists at a different level to mainstream sales personnel
• Fully positioning the benefits of their brand towards the role and priorities of a primary care Clinical Pharmacists
• Helping the wider sales organisation understand the role, objectives and priorities of the primary care Clinical Pharmacist
• Coordinate joint meetings between primary care Clinical Pharmacists and Community Pharmacists to align their initiatives to drive a more effective patient pathway
• Effectively partner with colleagues and use credibility and networks to engage with heads of Medicines Management and other key stakeholders

The team is expected to grow with the increasing number of primary care pharmacists being employed across England.