ArticleBMJ open2018
Cutting care clusters: the creation of an inverse pharmacy care law? An area-level analysis exploring the clustering of community pharmacies in England.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Assessing spatial accessibility of community pharmacies in England and Wales using floating catchment area techniques.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
- Contracting retail pharmacies as a source of essential medicines for public sector clients in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review of key considerations, challenges, and opportunities.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2023Article
- The Use of the TARGET Antibiotic Checklist to Support Antimicrobial Stewardship in England's Community Pharmacies.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Health complaints in individual visiting primary health care: population-based national electronic health records of Iran.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Geographical accessibility of medicines: a systematic literature review of pharmacy mapping.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo (1) explore the clustering of community pharmacies in England and (2) determine the relationship between community pharmacy clustering, urbanity and deprivation.
designAn area-level analysis spatial study.
settingEngland. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Community pharmacy clustering determined as a community pharmacy located within 10 min walking distance to another community pharmacy.
participantsAddresses and postal codes of each community pharmacy in England were used in the analysis. Each pharmacy postal code was assigned to a lower layer super output area, which was then matched to urbanity (urban, town and fringe or village, hamlet and isolated dwellings) and deprivation decile (using the Index of Multiple Deprivation score).
results75% of community pharmacies in England were located in a 'cluster' (within 10 min walking distance of another pharmacy): 19% of community pharmacies were in a cluster of two, while 56% of community pharmacies were in clusters of three or more. There was a linear relationship between community pharmacy clustering and social deprivation-with clustering more prevalent in areas of higher deprivation: for community pharmacies located in areas of lowest deprivation (decile 1), there was a significantly lower risk of clustering compared with community pharmacies located in areas of highest deprivation (relative risk 0.12 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.16)).
conclusionsClustering of community pharmacies in England is common, although there is a positive trend between community pharmacy clustering and social deprivation, whereby clustering is more significant in areas of high deprivation. Arrangements for future community pharmacy funding should not solely focus on distance from one pharmacy to another as means of determining funding allocation, as this could penalise community pharmacies in our most deprived communities, and potentially have a negative effect on other healthcare providers, such as general practitioner and accident and emergency services.
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