Patient and public involvement
We worked with our local Public and Patient in Research (PPIRES) group from the outset, with feedback received on the original project idea from PPIRES members and subsequent involvement in the grant application as it developed. With support from our care home expert (HH), we visited a home to conduct a focus group with residents, listening to their views about the project and what was needed from a resident’s perspective. Residents had no concerns about a pharmacist prescriber looking after their medicines, but they wanted involvement in all decisions. Training on this was incorporated into the final intervention.To enhance research effectiveness, we recruited four patient and public involvement members with an interest in care homes through PPIRES: two on the management group and two for the independent steering committee. Patient and public involvement members were family carers of people with complex conditions requiring polypharmacy. One had previous experience of working in care homes. We sought the views of patient and public involvement members involved in the management group at all points during the study, and one wrote an article about this.