Pharmacy Daily | GPs ignore pharmacists’ advice

GENERAL Practitioners implement fewer than 50% of medicine related recommendations pharmacists make, new research published in The Lancet reveals.

A study conducted by academics from the UK, Australia and Canada, found GPs tended to ignore pharmacists' advice because it was "more technical and unlikely to lead to patient benefit".

Almost 800 patients were included in the study, with pharmacists conducting medicine reviews in 76% of the group.

Almost one-in-five reviews were returned with no changes recommended.

However, in a third of cases pharmacists advised that the patient's treatment should be reduced of stopped.

In a further 23% of cases, pharmacists recommended swapping to an alternative medicine, while pharmacists urged GPs to increase or start a drug treatment regime for 13% of patients.

The authors noted that of the 1,110 recommendations made to GPs by pharmacists "20% were either vague, indirect or a question".

Speaking to UK-based GP publication, Pulse, lead researcher, Dr Polly Duncan, said that while GPs ignored a large proportion of the advice provided by pharmacists, there were key issues around which they valued input from their pharmacy peers.

"GPs most valued recommendations that improved prescribing safety, and two of the GPs talked about medication errors that had been picked up by the pharmacists," she said.