The Tees Valley Primary Care Pharmacy Network was established in September 2020 to bring together pharmacists and technicians working in primary care across Tees Valley, a large CCG and ICP area with 14 PCNs and 80 GP practices.
The aim of the network is to promote sharing of best practice across pharmacists and technicians in Tees Valley, to develop a supportive environment for pharmacists and technicians, often working in isolation, to allow them get to know their peers and, and to act as a way of sharing strategic updates and reducing duplication on initiatives developed at scale e.g. guidelines and pathways.
Joint working and collaboration between pharmacy professionals is at the heart of this project. In Tees Valley there are a number of different models for medicines optimisation, different providers and different employing organisations. We wanted to break down some of the traditional organisational boundaries and barriers to promote joint working across organisations.
The network is growing quickly, starting with approximately 50 members in September 2020, and growing to over 100 members in July 2021, and we expect this to grow even further as the primary care pharmacy workforce continues to grow.
