Abstract
Aim: To investigate the barriers and facilitators identified within the various stages of implementing the Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) project and the limitations to its sustainment within community pharmacy.Scope: The HLP project is a Department of Health commissioned initiative to enhance the potential contribution of community pharmacy towards improving the health of their local communities.
The research was conducted between November 2011 and January 2017 in Portsmouth - the HLP project pilot site. A literature review on the development of community pharmacy activities and implementation of services provided a contextual basis.
Semi-structured interviews with community pharmacy staff and subsequent framework analysis informed by implementation theory was employed to investigate the study aims. A sustainability strategy in the form of an online networking platform aiming to support the role of the Healthy Living Champions (HLCs) was designed and implemented. Its evaluation, including social network analysis revealed the effectiveness of this intervention.
Results: The findings identified the Healthy Living Champions’ (HLCs’) contribution and an emerging community of practice (CoP) as critical factors in the apparent successful implementation of the project. Despite the introduction of a HLC Facebook group, which demonstrated potential to serve as a virtual community of practice (VCoP), the sustainability of the HLP proved challenging. Ultimately, poor integration of community pharmacy into the wider NHS as well as contractual issues and commissioning constraints, resulted in the HLP project demonstrating poor potential for long-term sustainability.
Conclusions and contribution to the knowledge of the subject: This study is one of the first to successfully employ and report on the use of implementation theory to investigate the adoption and sustainability of innovation within UK community pharmacy. The findings elaborate on those of a recent NHS publication reporting on the challenges of providing clinical services in community pharmacy; and provide important lessons for consideration in planning and developing future community pharmacy innovations.
| Date of Award | May 2017 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | David Brown (Supervisor), Jane Portlock (Supervisor) & Paul Rutter (Supervisor) |