To change clinical pharmacist provider without a gap, agree the handover before the current service ends: list the open work, collect the protocols and searches, and arrange system access for the new provider in parallel. Because every action is already coded in your own clinical record, the new service can pick up from the last completed review. The steps below set out the order that keeps work moving.
Why do practices and PCNs change clinical pharmacist provider?
Practices and PCNs change provider when they want more from the service than they are getting: a wider range of workstreams, clearer reporting, more prescribing capacity or a single standard across several practices. Some change because their needs have grown, for example a network that started with one practice and now wants every member practice covered. Others want reporting that shows the clinical return on the money they spend.
The reason matters because it shapes the brief. Write down what you want to be different, and make it part of the scope you send to new providers. Use our editable scoping and handover template to record your workstreams, systems, responsibilities to agree and outstanding decisions in one brief.
A written reason also helps when you compare providers. Put the same brief to each one, ask how it would deliver the change you want, and ask for an example report. Our provider checklist lists the questions practices use most.
What should you agree with the outgoing provider?
Agree a written handover list with the outgoing provider covering open work, protocols and access. The list should include:
- Reviews in progress, with the patients booked or part-completed
- Searches in use, with their definitions and the date each was last run
- Outstanding actions waiting on a GP decision, a blood test or a patient reply
- Local protocols and any practice-specific ways of working
- The reporting format the practice has been receiving
Keep the handover practical and neutral. Most of this information already sits in your clinical system, so the aim is to make it easy to find, not to rebuild it.
What does the new provider need from you?
The new provider needs the handover list, your priorities and system access. With those, it can size the work for each practice and set out who does what. Useful items to send:
- Your list size and, for a PCN, the member practices and their clinical systems
- The workstreams you want covered, in order of priority
- The handover list from the outgoing provider
- The escalation route to your GPs for clinical decisions
- The reports you want, and who reads them
Access for a remote service is arranged through your existing systems. We work in EMIS, SystmOne, Vision and Medicus, and one network can use a mix of them.
How do you avoid a gap in medicines work?
Run the set-up for the new service while the current one is still delivering. Access, scoping and protocol sign-off can all happen in parallel, so the first working day of the new service is spent on patients and not on paperwork.
Prioritise the work that carries clinical risk first: high-risk drug monitoring that is due, safety alert searches and discharge letters waiting for reconciliation. Structured medication reviews and QOF registers can follow in the order you set.
Set a date for the last piece of work the outgoing provider completes, and a date for the first piece the new service takes on. Share both dates with the practice team so queries go to the right place on each day. Where work is part-completed on the changeover date, name who finishes it and record that on the handover list.
A managed service helps here because continuity sits with the provider. Our clinical pharmacist service is delivered by a core team that stays with your practice, with cover for leave and sickness handled by us.
What happens to the patient record and audit trail?
The patient record and audit trail stay with the practice. Every review, change and follow-up coded by the outgoing provider remains in your clinical system, and the new provider codes its work the same way. That continuity is what lets the new service read the history of a patient before a review, and what gives the practice one clear audit trail through the change.
Write down the coding conventions before the change. Where the outgoing provider used local codes or templates for reviews, share them with the new provider, so searches and reports keep counting the same way afterwards.
How should you tell patients and the practice team?
Tell the practice team first, then patients where the change affects them. Reception and prescription clerks need to know who handles medicines queries and how to route them. Patients booked for a review need to know who will contact them and how. A short internal note and a standard line for reception usually covers it.
What we see in practice
Networks that change provider often want one standard across every practice. In one nine-practice Lincolnshire PCN, we delivered 315 hours of medication reviews in a first block, to one pathway across all nine practices, and the PCN then moved to a full-year contract covering the whole network. In Somerset, a PCN commissioned a 287-hour block of medication reviews and followed it with an extension.
We have supported 375+ GP practices and 88+ PCNs across 23 ICB areas and all seven NHS regions since 2021. Our case studies set out the detail, and we can arrange a reference call with a PCN doing similar work.
Thinking about a change of provider? Send us an enquiry and we will reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
Can we change provider partway through the year?
A mid-year change may be possible, subject to the existing contract, notice requirements and agreed handover arrangements. Prioritise open clinical risks and confirm responsibilities before the changeover.
Will the new provider see the work the old provider did?
Yes. All clinical work is coded in your own record, so the new provider can read each patient's history before contacting them.
Can we start with one workstream and add more later?
Yes. Many networks begin with a counted block, such as a set number of structured medication reviews, then widen the service once the new provider is established.
Does a PCN need every practice to change at once?
A PCN can move practices together or in stages. We size the work for each practice, so both approaches run to one standard.
