Table 5 Quotes related to theme 3: the role of the pharmacy in facilitating access to the GP
Quote no | Quotes |
|---|---|
1 | “If I did suspect rheumatoid arthritis in a patient, although I would offer to treat symptoms there, I would recommend that they saw a doctor” P01, Pharmacist |
2 | “Yes, I'd ask if they'd been diagnosed with—do they have any other medical conditions, things like that. So maybe if they have a history of it in the family.” P16, Pre-registration pharmacist |
3 | “Initially it’s just ruling out if the stiffness is worse in the mornings, those sorts of things.” P06, Pre-registration pharmacist |
4 | “I think it’s changed a lot recently because it’s kind of moved from us staying in the back just dispensing the medication, checking, to actually being out the front and making sure that we’re picking up things so it’s just a case of making sure that the conversations are happening so you don’t want to miss things so often it’s the case that the patient is seeking advice for the first time and if it is something like rheumatoid or something it is spotted and you are referring the right patients so I think we now have a bigger role in terms of awareness of arthritis.” P06, Pre-registration pharmacist |
5 | “I mean we usually like access the symptoms first and then obviously we refer it to the pharmacist and then like if he thinks that there’s anything more serious then he would always refer it to their GP.” P13, Pharmacy assistant |
6 | “In terms of stiffness in their hands or joint pain anywhere else in the body, at that point obviously I would […] just to keep an eye on generally what the patient is buying over the counter and spotting signs and clues as to there may be an underlying condition here.” P15, Pre-registration pharmacist |
7 | “So regarding joint pain the conversation I might have is more when I’m handing out pain medication and I strike up a conversation with the patient as to whether they’ve had the medication before and then it might go further into a conversation regarding their pain management.” P07, Pharmacist |
8 | “Sometimes people come and they ask for more medication even though the doctors prescribe something and then they ask for more tablets or more for example they just come for Co-codamol so many times even though they take medication at home they want some more tablets.” P11, Pharmacy assistant |