Virtual Pharmacist provides managed remote clinical pharmacist support for GP practices and PCNs using SystmOne. The service works within your existing clinical system, with an agreed workload, practice-controlled access and a named route for decisions that need your GP team.
You can commission support for a defined medicines workstream or discuss a wider service across several practices. Our clinical pharmacist service explains the delivery model; this guide sets out what a SystmOne practice needs to agree before work starts.
How SystmOne supports medicines work
SystmOne is TPP’s clinical system for general practice. TPP describes features covering acute and repeat prescribing, the electronic patient record, reporting and document management. These are the places where a practice’s medicines workload and its record of completed actions come together. See TPP’s general practice overview.
A clinical system gives the team tools to do the work. The commissioned service still needs a clear task list, suitable permissions, an agreed protocol and clinical oversight. We agree those arrangements with the practice rather than assuming that every SystmOne organisation works in the same way.
Which work can you commission?
The brief should name the medicines tasks you want covered and the current volume. Workstreams to discuss include:
- Repeat prescription requests and acute prescription requests, handled within the agreed clinical scope.
- Medicines queries from patients, community pharmacies and the practice team.
- Discharge medicines reconciliation and medicines-related clinical correspondence.
- High-risk drug monitoring, with the responsibilities and escalation arrangements set out in the service scope.
If your immediate pressure is a queue of outstanding requests, our prescription backlog support page explains the commissioning brief. The task list should distinguish existing backlog work from new requests arriving during the service.
Access and responsibilities before the first working day
Access is arranged with your practice through its existing systems. Permissions need to match the role and the work agreed; access to a record does not itself give someone prescribing authority. Pharmacists act within their competence and authorised scope, with questions outside it passed through the agreed clinical escalation route.
Before work starts, agree:
- The practices and SystmOne organisations included in the service.
- The named practice contact and the route for arranging and checking access.
- The task queues, cohorts and workstreams the team will handle.
- The relevant local protocols, formularies and recording conventions.
- Which actions the pharmacist can complete and which require a GP or another clinician.
- Who receives progress reports and who owns any outstanding practice actions.
The clinical pharmacy scoping and handover template helps you collect this brief. Our governance and data security information sets out the published assurance position.
Working with your existing searches and templates
Where your practice uses Ardens, we work with the existing templates and searches relevant to the agreed service. Ardens publishes medicines-management resources for SystmOne and EMIS Web; available resources and local configuration should be checked against your practice’s subscription and setup. See Ardens medicines-management resources.
Agree which searches define the work and how completed actions will be recorded. Keeping those definitions consistent helps the practice compare the starting position with later progress. A list of patients identified by a search is different from a list of actions completed, so the report should make that distinction clear.
Reporting across a practice or PCN
Reporting is agreed as part of the service. Name the measures you need, the reporting frequency and the people who will read it. Useful distinctions include work received, work completed, items awaiting information and matters escalated for a practice decision.
For a PCN, identify each participating practice and its clinical system. Virtual Pharmacist works in SystmOne, EMIS, Vision and Medicus, so a network can discuss a service across a mix of systems while retaining the access and recording arrangements for each practice. Our PCN pharmacist service explains the wider network model.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to change clinical system?
No. This service is for practices using their existing SystmOne system. Access, recording and task handling are agreed with the practice before the service starts.
Can we start with one workstream?
Yes. Describe the task list and its current volume so we can discuss a scope and proposal. Any later expansion needs to be agreed alongside capacity, responsibilities and reporting.
Can you support a PCN using both SystmOne and EMIS?
Yes. We work across these systems. Each practice needs its own access arrangements and escalation route. Our EMIS Web guide covers the corresponding practice brief.
How soon can work begin?
The start date depends on the agreed workload, capacity and access readiness. We confirm the mobilisation arrangements in the proposal.
Discuss clinical pharmacist support for your SystmOne practice
Tell us your practice or PCN, the systems in use, the work you want covered and the current volumes. Send your service brief to Virtual Pharmacist so we can discuss a proposal suited to your workload.
