Overall sentiment
"This project is a great example of what can be achieved when GPs and community pharmacies work together. By supporting a consistent, secure communication channel, we’ve helped streamline how out-of-stock medication issues are managed —saving time, reducing stress, and ultimately improving patient care."
Laura Richardson, Services & Engagement Lead, Community Pharmacy South Yorkshire (CPSY)
The “Old Way"
Before implementation, GPs and pharmacies within South Yorkshire ICB struggled with fragmented communication around out-of-stock medications. Pharmacists often had to make phone calls, send emails or even convey the message in person to the GP, leading to long wait times, missed messages, and patient delays in receiving alternative prescriptions. The inefficiencies caused frustration for practice staff, pharmacists, and ultimately impacted patients.
“The issue around medicine stock problems was not going to go away. In fact - we knew it was likely to get worse, which was taking away valuable patient-facing clinical time”
Razwan Saleem, Strategic Pharmacist in the Medicines Optimisation Team (MOT) SY ICB.
The Goal
To implement a standardised, secure communication channel between all Community Pharmacies and GP practices across the South Yorkshire footprint, enabling real-time messaging, faster resolution of medication supply issues and giving patients continued access to their required medications.
The Solution
Accurx was selected as the preferred communication tool due to its widespread use in general practice, ease of use, and secure messaging capabilities. The ICB coordinated a region-wide onboarding initiative to ensure every community pharmacy had access and training to use Accurx effectively.
Implementation Process
- Stakeholder Engagement - The project was co-ordinated by Raz, Strategic Pharmacist in the Medicines Optimisation Team (MOT) at NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (NHS SY ICB). Raz worked closely with GP Practices and Community Pharmacies across South Yorkshire, supported by Community Pharmacy South Yorkshire (CPSY), to understand (“a walk in my shoes”) the true reality of the problems faced. With a clear idea of where impact could be made, Raz presented this potential “communication” solution to relevant internal and external parties, and gained full support to put plans into action.
- Onboarding Plan- The ICB took a borough by Borough approach across the time period of 1 year.
- The first pilot took place across RVS South PCN - they offered themselves for a pilot here and had a clear boundary of practices / pharmacies.
- Following a successful pilot, the initiative was rolled out to the remainder of Rotherham over 2024.
- Throughout 2025, the initiative has been rolled out across Doncaster, Barnsley and Sheffield, with each place taking ~3 months to agree the change, fully embed & implement. Onboarding support was offered to both GPs and CPs.
- With each rollout, a date was set for the “Go-Live” and communicated weekly by the ICB as a countdown to change.
- Support and Training
- Template created within Accurx for CP to use
- 2x Webinars with GP practices
- 2x Webinars with Pharmacies
- Resource centre housed on SY website
- Support from ICB (Raz)
- Support from Accurx
- Ongoing Engagement
- Data is tracked on a monthly basis to ensure the platform is being used for communication of OOS
- 1 to 1 contact is made with those who are not yet using the platform to ensure they can be supported through this change
- Monthly catch-up/ check-ins with Place meetings, where feedback is gathered
Impact & Outcomes
- >96% GP’s Opted In to this communication
- 75% Pharmacies in South Yorkshire use Accurx
- 5369 messages have been sent to South Yorkshire GP's (1st April-30th June)
- Pharmacy messages sent into GP are read in 55 minutes (median)
- 99% read, and 98% with further action taken e.g. save to record.
- Improved satisfaction (Community Pharmacy and GPs): Overall, feedback from teams has been positive — no complaints reported, and several have noted that the process is saving time and is easier to manage.
“ Practices were really positive about having a direct line of communication for out of stock medicine queries that works in conjunction with their existing patient systems.”
Liz Hilbert, Project Support, MOT, SYICB
"Using Accurx to help us manage out of stock medicine request changes from community pharmacies and patients has been transformational.
We were struggling to cope with the number of out of stock messages and the workload put back to us for this, and were also concerned about the clinical governance and safety issues it was raising.
We were convinced that the ICB MOT/Accurx pilot, demo'd by Raz (Strategic Pharmacist for the ICB MOT) could be effective because of the leadership and support offered, together with practice experience with Accurx and its embedment in the clinical record to provide consistency of record and governance.
We now have a consistent process that is fully embedded in practice and a process that is efficiently managed and policed by our practice pharmacy teams with little input needed from other clinicians."
Dr Tim Douglas GP Clinical Director for Rother Valley South, the pilot PCN
Challenges and Lessons Learned
- Implementing new ways of working during busy times: There are many competing priorities across Primary Care so in order to drive this forward and gain buy-in, it was important to share the vision, and the long-term gains for both CP teams, GP teams, and the patient.
- Ensure all communication (from and to) shared between the GP Practices and other providers e.g. Community Pharmacy was being accurately recorded into the patient record (visibility enhances safety) without causing additional workload.
Tips for Other ICBs
- Use existing ICB communication channels- especially Medicine Optimisation teams.
- Embed the change into current processes, and update SOPs to reflect this.
- Start with engaged pharmacies- they will be the early adopters, and will help to build the case for other pharmacies that may need data or trailblazers gain confidence.
- Encourage HCPS to actively prioritise Accurx as the communication channel for OOS notifications. “GP practices participating in this process will be prioritising Accurx for all OOS communications. Previous communication methods (phone, post, email) used for this purpose may no longer be monitored in the same way. We therefore strongly encourage you to start using Accurx for communicating OOS to avoid any delays in arranging replacement prescription(s)."
- Encourage replies / acknowledgement of the message while confidence is built in this new channel.
- Clearly share the benefits for pharmacy teams (Free to use, no need to find contact information for the GPs, one platform for GP & patient communications), GP teams (familiar platform, one click save to record) and Patients (more joined up care).
- Use each area’s rollout as an opportunity to provide refresher or onboarding training for any new starters across all areas. This can help boost uptake and gives areas a second chance to engage if they didn’t sign up the first time around.
- Continue to advertise the process periodically after rollout has concluded to regularly remind staff it’s in place, provide refreshers, and support new starters. CPSY have included this in their comms planner, with reminders scheduled at regular intervals throughout the year.
Next Steps / Future Plans
- This ICB is rounding up the final rollout in Pharmacy, which will commence in September.
- Trusts shared care use case.