Too far away to work with each other: Does location impact on pharmacists' perceptions of interprofessional interactions?

In recent years, the delivery of health services has seen a shift towards interprofessional teamwork in order to effectively utilise the skills of each member of the healthcare team to deliver optimal patient care. Nevertheless, a variety of barriers, including lack of communication between healthcare professionals (HCPs), have been identified. The expanding clinical services provided by community pharmacies have increased the potential for pharmacist-HCP interaction; however, primary care pharmacy environments vary from individual distinct premises to part of interprofessional 'health centres'. As such, one potential factor affecting interprofessional communication could be the geographical location ('space') of HCPs. This study sought to determine whether these different primary healthcare 'spaces' impact on the frequency of interprofessional interactions. An anonymous, self-complete questionnaire was sent to all community pharmacies in Wales (n = 716) to quantify the frequency of interprofessional interactions between community pharmacists and other HCPs. A response rate of 62% was achieved. Results showed that pharmacists working in pharmacies physically linked to general practitioner (GP) surgeries had significantly more frequent interaction with HCPs based within the surgeries. This suggests that housing HCPs in the same physical space will enable more interprofessional interaction, supporting the drive to improve the quality of patient care.