Pharmacy teams and GP staff in Lewisham, London, have been given the chance to ‘walk in each other’s shoes’ as part of a new initiative to improve medicines optimisation. More than 100 ‘walk in my shoes’ sessions took place between January and April 2015, with GPs, clinical and administrative practice staff visiting 45 community pharmacies and pharmacy teams visiting 42 GPs to gain an insight into the different working environments.

The project is part of Lewisham CCG’s Medicines Optimisation Education Training (MOET) programme, which was created to improve patient outcomes and safety by addressing issues in the medicine prescribing, ordering and dispensing processes. Jayesh Patel, CEO of Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham LPC, said that the scheme had helped both professions to “break down barriers and understand and share problems” and hoped that it would “encourage more joined up work between GPs and pharmacies in the future”.