Millions of patients will no longer clog up A&E waiting rooms thanks to a new service where a pharmacist can offer treatment for a range of illnesses.
Launching across England today, the Pharmacy First service allows pharmacists to offer expert advice and provide medicines for seven common conditions.
Earache, impetigo, infected insect bites, shingles, sinusitis, sore throats and UTIs in women can now be treated via the ‘game-changing’ service designed to relieve pressure on the NHS.
NHS England said more than nine in 10 community pharmacies in England – 10,265 in total – will be offering the service, meaning patients can now go a pharmacy counter instead of booking an appointment with their GP.
NHS England hope it will free-up as many as 30million GP appointments each year.
Launching across England today, the Pharmacy First service allows pharmacists to offer expert advice and provide medicines for seven common conditions (Stock Image)
Figures released this month reveal one in 20 patients in England had to wait at least four weeks to see their GP while one in six had to wait two weeks or more (File image)
Figures released this month reveal one in 20 patients in England had to wait at least four weeks to see their GP while one in six had to wait two weeks or more.
The average number of patients currently seen by a single GP in England is 2,290.
A poll conducted for Well Pharmacy reveals that 75% of people are likely to seek advice or treatment at a pharmacy when the service launches – 72% of men and 77% of women.
Well – Britain’s biggest independent pharmacy chain – believes 60 to 70 per cent of its patients taking advantage of the new service will be women with a UTI, a painful infection that caused 1.8million hospital admissions in England in the past five years.
Well Pharmacy Superintendent Ifti Khan said: ‘We’ve spent the last few months training and preparing colleagues for the rush of patients when Pharmacy First launches.
‘This truly game-changing service will bring fast and much-needed relief for millions of patients who have previously had to endure long delays to see their GP.
‘From today, patients across England can literally think ‘Pharmacy First’ if they contract any of these common illnesses.’
The Company Chemist Association says the initiative could fail unless GP surgeries are banned from recruiting more pharmacists.
The trade body, which represents leading chains such as Boots and Superdrug, says so many pharmacists are now working for GPs that they are struggling to recruit to their stores.
The NHS has incentivised GPs to recruit non-medical staff, such as pharmacists, physiotherapists and paramedics, in a bid to plug staffing gaps and ease pressure on family doctors.
But the CCA is now demanding an immediate recruitment freeze.
The shortage has driven up locum pharmacy rates, increasing the cost of trading, and leading to temporary closures, it added.
This is because pharmacies are not allowed to open unless there is at least one pharmacist on site.
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the CCA, said: ‘In trying to solve the GP shortage, the NHS has merely created a shortage of community pharmacists, and increased the cost of providing NHS care.
‘This short-sighted “whack-a-mole” policy has been to the detriment of both the community and hospital pharmacy sectors.
‘Pharmacies are being asked to take on more and more workload to free up GP capacity, but to do this we need pharmacists back in pharmacies.’
