%A Emily Owen-Boukra
%A Ziyue Cai
%A Claire Duddy
%A Nina Fudge
%A Julia Hamer-Hunt
%A Fran Husson
%A Kamal R Mahtani
%A Margaret Ogden
%A Deborah Swinglehurst
%A Malcolm Turner
%A Cate Whittlesea
%A Geoff Wong
%A Sophie Park
%V 30
%T Collaborative and integrated working between general practice and community pharmacies: A realist review of what works, for whom, and in which contexts
%N 2
%P 136-148
%D 2025
%I SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
%L discovery10205737
%K Community pharmacies, general practice, realist review
%J Journal of Health Services Research & Policy
%X OBJECTIVES: 
Collaborative and integrated (C + I) working between general practice and community pharmacies has the potential to increase accessibility to services, improve service efficiency and quality of care, and reduce health care expenditures. Many existing studies report challenges and complexities inherent in establishing effective C + I ways of working. The aim of our review is to understand how, when and why working arrangements between General Practitioners (GP) and Community Pharmacists (CP) can provide the conditions necessary for effective communication, decision-making, and C + I working.

METHODS: 
We conducted a realist review to explore the key contextual factors and mechanisms through which GP-CP C + I working may be achieved. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, HMIC, Web of Science, IBSS, ASSIA, Sociological Abstracts, Sociology Database and the King’s Fund Library Database were searched for articles and grey literature published between January 2000 and April 2022.

RESULTS: 
A total of 136 documents were included in the final synthesis. Our findings highlight the importance of mutually beneficial remuneration models to support effective integration of services; supportive organisational cultures and values; flexible and agile IT systems/technologies; adequate physical infrastructure and space design to support multidisciplinary teamworking; the importance of establishing patient’s trust in collaborative processes between GP-CP; and the need to acknowledge, support and utilise effective triadic relationships.

CONCLUSIONS: 
Our research generates new insights regarding how, why and in which contexts C + I working can be achieved between GPs and CPs. The findings of our review can be used to inform future policy, research and clinical practice guidelines for designing and delivering C + I care.
%C England
%O This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).