From community pharmacy to healthy living pharmacy: Positive early experiences from Portsmouth, England

Research has shown the potential for community pharmacies to promote better health and prevent disease by providing individual services in a limited range of settings. In the UK, the healthy living pharmacy (HLP) framework has been developed to allow pharmacies to provide a portfolio of such services tailored to local need. This paper reports an evaluation of the uptake and success of HLP introduction in Portsmouth, the original pathfinder site for a national program. To assesses the impact on service provision and staff engagement at an early stage in HLP program development. Quantitative data, derived from pharmacy records, on service provision by HLPs (n = 17) and non-HLPs (n = 19) during April 2011–March 2012 was evaluated for trends and differences. Face-to-face interviews were conducted during November 2011 and February 2012, to gauge staff opinion on HLP development and sustainability, using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Significantly more clients per pharmacy were seen in HLPs than non-HLPs for the following services: targeted respiratory medicine use reviews (medians: 29 vs 11; P = 0.0167); smoking cessation at initiation (62 vs 18; P