General Information
Salford is a city in the northwest of England situated immediately west of Manchester and is part of the large Manchester conurbation. The pilot site within Salford Primary Care Trust area is in the east of the city adjacent to Manchester city centre. East Salford is an inner city urban area with a predominantly white population and includes the campus of Salford University.
Seven GP practices are taking part in the study, only one of which is single-handed. The largest practice comprises five partners, one GP assistant and one registrar and list sizes range from 1,200 – 11,500. The total population served by the practices is approximately 31,600 although around 4,000 are students at Salford University who are unlikely to suffer from coronary heart disease. Practice disease registers show that approximately 1,100 patients are included in the coronary heart disease registers for these practices meaning that 4% of the population (excluding university students) could be eligible for inclusion in the project.
Eight community pharmacies serving the same population as the GP practices are also participating in the project, although ten pharmacists are taking part as two pharmacies are staffed by two regular pharmacists. Two of these pharmacies are owned by regional multiple pharmacy companies, three belong to national multiple companies and three are independents.
Photos
These are forthcoming
Progress Update
Salford is a city in the northwest of England situated immediately west of Manchester and is part of the large Manchester conurbation. The pilot site within Salford Primary Care Trust area is in the east of the city adjacent to Manchester city centre. East Salford is an inner city urban area with a predominantly white population and includes the campus of Salford University.
Nothing remains the same for very long in healthcare and the Salford pilot area has exemplified this fact, as there has been a generally fluid situation with regard to practices and pharmacies involved in the project. These changes have added interest to the tasks of the Local Project and Local Research Co-ordinators and some ingenuity has been required at times in order to ensure the smooth running of the project as GPs have left and practice managers have retired or gone on maternity leave. New alliances have therefore had to be forged in certain practices. The situation has now stabilised with six GP practices taking part in the project, none of which are single-handed. The largest practice comprises five partners, one GP assistant and one registrar and list sizes range from 2,100 - 11,500. The total population served by the practices is approximately 30,400 although around 4,000 are students at Salford University who are unlikely to suffer from coronary heart disease. Practice disease registers show that approximately 1,000 patients are included in the coronary heart disease registers for these practices meaning that approximately 4% of the population (excluding university students) could be eligible for inclusion in the project.
The pilot phase of the project produced a number of important learning points. In Salford, it was noted that the regular pharmacy that patients, who consented to participate in the project, use is sometimes quite some distance from the GP practice at which they are registered.
The pharmacies originally included in the project in Salford are geographically close to all the GP practices, but in fact patients nominated more pharmacies not included during the pilot phase, some of which were up to two miles away from the surgery location. This has led to a drive to attract more pharmacies and pharmacists into the project and three new pharmacies (all nominated during the pilot phase) have now joined in with the relevant pharmacists undergoing training at the beginning of October in time to be included in the main phase of the project. This will increase the options for patients and should increase the numbers able to be included in the main phase.
These changes (together with some pharmacists moving to new jobs and managers changing pharmacies) means that ten community pharmacies are now participating in the project, with twelve pharmacists taking part as two pharmacies are staffed by two regular pharmacists. Five of these pharmacies are owned by regional multiple pharmacy companies, three belong to national multiple companies and two are independents.
Practices have been busy writing to patients to invite them to participate on the project and we are looking forward to the next stage of the project with interest.
