General practitioners' opinions of educational outreach visits from community pharmacists as a method of providing prescribing information

AIM • To investigate general practitioner (GP) opinion of educational outreach visits from community pharmacists as a method of providing prescribing advice. DESIGN • Questionnaire survey of GPs participating in one arm of a randomised controlled trial. SUBJECTS AND SETTING • 35 GPs from 7 practices in South West England, received 2 one-to-one educational outreach visits from community pharmacists. OUTCOME MEASURES • GP response to a 20-item questionnaire survey. RESULTS • A 100% response rate was achieved. Three questionnaires were completed by telephone with the remainder returned by post. 30 (88%) GPs said they benefited from the educational outreach visits and 32 (94%) and 27 (79%) thought they were an acceptable and effective method of providing prescribing information, respectively. 25 respondents (73%) thought that educational outreach visits were a suitable role for community pharmacists and the same proportion said they would accept future visits of this type in order to discuss prescribing issues. CONCLUSION • Educational outreach visits from community pharmacists were well-received by GPs. General practitioners stated that they benefited from the visits and that they were a suitable role for community pharmacists.