Cate Whittlesea

In collaboration with colleagues in the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery London and health economists at the Institute of Psychiatry King’s College London and Public Health, in Lambeth PCT the group have been awarded £250,000 by Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity to develop and evaluate a brief alcohol intervention service in Lambeth community pharmacies.

This two year study will utilise and enhance the existing skills of community pharmacists, who will conduct brief alcohol interventions in their pharmacies to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of this intervention in reducing and preventing harm from alcohol misuse.

A further study in collaboration with Karen Rosenbloom and Hertfordshire LPC is developing a needs assessment to determine the pharmaceutical public health needs of people living and working in Hertfordshire.

It is anticipated that following evaluation of the results from this assessment further research will develop, implement and evaluate a public health intervention developed in the community pharmacy setting

In collaboration with colleagues in NHS hospital Trusts in Wales, Guys and St Thomas’s, King’s College Hospital, Foundation Trusts in London and the Department of Management King’s College London, Dr Whittlesea leads research into medicines safety with a special interest risk reduction strategies in the medication use process.

Published research focuses on dispensing including identification of the common dispensing incident types, such as supply of the incorrect drug, wrong strength / quantity, and labelling medication with the wrong directions.

Dispensing incidents, if undetected, can cause serious patient harm research focuses on the causes of dispensing incidents including look alike, sound alike drugs; high workload, low staffing, interruptions and job dissatisfaction.

Current studies include impact of automated dispensing systems on workload, pharmacy staff stressors and dispensing incidents in hospital pharmacy. This research has been funded by a number of grants from the National Assembly, Wales.

In collaboration with colleagues in the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery London and health economists at the Institute of Psychiatry King’s College London Dr Whittlesea completed a Department of Health funded study to investigate the ‘Perceptions and effectiveness of Supplementary prescribing in mental health’.

This study was undertaken to assess the impact and effectiveness of supplementary prescribing by mental health nurses on NHS care delivery and evaluate staff, service and user outcomes