The questionnaire was refined through email correspondence with focus-group participants. A draft of the questionnaire was piloted with care home managers (n = 3) with their feedback incorporated into the final version, which

was posted to care-home managers (59) in Buckinghamshire in July 2012 with a repeat Bortezomib order mailing (October 2012) and a reminder phone call to maximise the response rate (November 2012). Ethics approval was granted by the University of Reading Ethics Committee (March 2011). A total of 16 care-home managers (27%) responded to the questionnaire. On the whole, a GP or another healthcare professional performed the medication reviews with 10/16, (63%) stating that 80–100% of their residents received a medication review at least annually. Prompt supply

of medication for care-home residents (16/16, 100%), provision of pre-printed medication administration record charts (15/16, 94%) and providing medicines information (11/16, 69%) to care home staff and residents were the main functions carried out by community pharmacists, which matched the main requirements of care-home managers. Lower down the priorities selleck products were support with minimising waste medicines (9/16, 56%) and developing medication policy and procedures per se (5/16, 31%). Advice on medication errors and handling of adverse drug reactions, and auditing procedures and training on the safe handling of medication though were identified as potential areas of unmet need. Pharmacist involvement in care-home settings has returned mixed evidence of effectiveness but an increase in others’ knowledge and awareness about out medication2. Formal studies of pharmacist effectiveness are subject to normal constraints of quantitative methodology because they measure short-term, funded pharmacist input that might not be sustainable post-intervention. The current study although small does nonetheless

provide some interesting insight, suggesting that medication reviews are seen as an activity already covered by other healthcare professionals. The study highlights instead related perhaps more fundamental areas with potential for pharmacist involvement. Pharmacists could provide more training on safe handling of medicines, and give advice on medication errors and adverse drug reactions to meet perceived needs. Working in this way, pharmacists’ activities could be based on ‘wants’ and therefore be of greater value to care homes. 1. Barber ND, Alldred DP, Raynor DK, et al. Care homes’ use of medicines study prevalence, causes and potential harm of medication errors in care homes for older people. Qual Saf Health Care 2009; 18: 341–346 2. Verrue CLR, Petrovic, M, Mehuys E, Remon JP, Stichele RV. Pharmacists’ interventions for optimising medicines use in nursing homes. A systematic review. Drugs Aging 2009; 26: 37–49 Victoria Lea, Sarah Corlett, Ruth Rodgers Medway School of Pharmacy, Chatham, UK The aim was to explore how community pharmacists used delegation as a tool to manage workload.