Data were analysed thematically. NHS ethics committee approval was granted. Participants’ ages ranged from 35 to 80; 24 were male and 14 were female. They lived in areas of high (18), medium (13) selleck inhibitor and low (7) deprivation and eight participants were from ethnic minorities. Three main themes were identified in the data: role clarity; missed opportunities; and unmet needs.

Role clarity: Patients’ views of community pharmacy’s role in their care were mostly limited to providing medicines and ensuring medicines safety. Most patients lacked awareness of the potential role of the community pharmacist in supporting their medicines use after discharge from hospital. Patients valued their community pharmacist either because they perceive a long-standing relationship or because the pharmacist provides efficient access to medicines. Missed opportunities: Only one patient had experienced a post-discharge Medicines Use Review

and no others had been offered this service. Patients perceived community pharmacists to be medicines experts, but most explained they had not discussed their medicines with a community pharmacist. They chose instead to do so with other healthcare professionals – who they perceived to have a superior role in their care or who had allocated time to them – or leave their questions unanswered. Contact with community pharmacists was infrequent and often via a proxy (a relative, a delivery Dasatinib purchase driver or a counter assistant). Unmet needs: Patients varied in their knowledge of what their discharge medicines are for and some held mistaken beliefs about their purpose. Others Oxymatrine had concerns about their medicines and in some cases had stopped taking them. Some patients lacked the ability to assess how effective their medicines are for them and were unsure how their health would be affected if they stopped their medicines. Patients were unaware of how their medicines work together to help their health condition. Community pharmacy currently misses opportunities to optimise patients’ medicines use after discharge from hospital.

While most patients have some contact either in person or via a proxy with community pharmacy, many patients have unmet medicines use support needs and their perception of the pharmacists’ role in their health condition management is limited. Other research has shown that transfer of discharge medicines information from hospital to community pharmacy is inconsistent in both quality and quantity, limiting community pharmacy involvement after discharge2. Many patients do not experience the community pharmacy medicines management service as intended. 1. Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee/NHS Employers (2013). Guidance on the Medicines Use Review Service. http://www.nhsemployers.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/MUR%20guidance%20final.pdf (accessed 08 April 2014). 2. Urban R, Paloumpi E, Rana N, Morgan, J.