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General practitioners’ perceptions of the current status and pharmacists’ contribution to primary care in Iceland

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Abstract

Background For the past several years pharmacists’ responsibilities have expanded globally from traditional tasks of dispensing medications to collaborating with other health care professionals in patient care. Similar developments have not occurred in outpatient settings in Iceland. Objective The aim of this study was to explore Icelandic general practitioners’ views on the current status of primary care, their perceptions of pharmacists as a health care profession, and their attitudes towards future GP-pharmacist collaboration in primary care in Iceland. Setting Twelve primary care clinics in Iceland. Methods Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with general practitioners from different primary care clinics in Iceland. A purposive and snowball sampling technique was used to select participants. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were categorized by themes and then analyzed using conventional content analysis. Main outcome measure General practitioners’ attitudes towards pharmacists. Results Twenty general practitioners from twelve different primary care clinics in Iceland were interviewed. There are several unmet needs regarding medicines and patient monitoring in the Icelandic health care system. General practitioners suggested ways in which these gaps may be addressed and pharmacist-led clinical service was one of the suggestions. Currently, their communication with pharmacists in the primary sector solely surrounds practical non-clinical issues. Due to increasing polypharmacy and multimorbidity, they suggested that pharmacists should be more involved in patient care. Conclusions General practitioners believe that pharmacist-led clinical service can increase the quality of patient therapy. To improve communication between these health care providers, pharmacists must also re-professionalize (strengthening the profession´s status through new responsibilities and tasks), not having a conflict of interest and showing that they have expertise in patient care.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participants for their contribution to this study.

Funding

Funding was provided by University of Iceland, Teaching fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iceland, Hagi, Hofsvallagata 53, 107, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Anna Bryndis Blondal

  2. Department of Family Medicine, University of Iceland, Læknagarði, Vatnsmýrarvegi 16, 101, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Jon Steinar Jonsson

  3. Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong & Anna Birna Almarsdottir

Authors
  1. Anna Bryndis Blondal
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  2. Jon Steinar Jonsson
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  3. Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong
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  4. Anna Birna Almarsdottir
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Correspondence to Anna Bryndis Blondal.

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Blondal, A.B., Jonsson, J.S., Sporrong, S.K. et al. General practitioners’ perceptions of the current status and pharmacists’ contribution to primary care in Iceland. Int J Clin Pharm 39, 945–952 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-017-0478-7

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