The AJP Podcast’s Carlene McMaugh sits down with award-winning consultant pharmacist Angus Thompson, who tells her about how he builds rapport with his patients and helps them get the most out of their consultation.

“We are not there to interfere and make changes for changes’ sake,” he explains.

“We’re there to help them get the best outcome. I will invariably ask the patient what do they want to get out of the consultation and what’s important to them because I try to keep everything about the patient and align with their priorities and preferences.

“Some patients may say, ‘I want to take less medicines’, some people may say, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I feel confused’.

“So you try and tailor what you do, what you say to reassure them.”

And health literacy is a “huge challenge” for many patients, he says – and tells a tale of one man who had Type 2 diabetes.

“He’d misunderstood instructions from everybody else he’d ever seen,” Thompson says.

“He saw pretty much everybody that a person with diabetes will see: an educator, obviously GP, community pharmacy, dietitian…

“He said something about his insulin. I said, ‘just talk me through how you use your insulin’.

“And he was using one pen for one injection. He was on 10 units of glargine, giving himself 10 units and then throwing away the remaining 290 units.

“And this was simply because somebody had said to him, use a new needle for each injection.

“To him, a new needle was a new pen. So he was visiting his pharmacy every 25 days and costing Medicare over $4,000 a year more than was necessary.

“It is just the way people understand what we say. It’s really important that we check back that they have understood it in the way we want them to.”

02:22 – Building rapport with patients

05:55 – “Different strategies for different patients.”

07:26 – The impact of HMRs – and the man with Type 2 diabetes

09:05 – A patient Thompson had just helped reassure about her medicines

11:13 – Involving the patient in their own decision-making

14:38 – Misconceptions about HMRs

15:42 – “Very rarely are people taking what we think they’re taking.”

17:29 – When patients are reluctant to change

21:49 – HMRs and vulnerable patients

25:14 – Keeping up-to-date

32:07 – Why the cap needs to go

34:32 – New technologies

38:28 – “Transitions of care are such a flashpoint for medication misadventure.”

40:31 – The HMR workforce

You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.

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