How this fits in

Pharmacists working within GP practices have the potential to reduce GP workload and to improve the quality and safety of prescribing. Optimising medications for complex patients with multimorbidity is one area where pharmacist expertise could be usefully deployed but research into how to do this effectively is lacking. This study found that traditional ideas about the different professional roles of GPs and pharmacists (for example, concerns from some GPs that pharmacists stuck too rigidly to guidelines) may stop pharmacists fulfilling their potential within primary care. Where GPs worked collaboratively with pharmacists (for example, in practices that employed a pharmacist) they reported confidence in their professional skills and more effective collaboration was possible.