Revolution at the pharmacy

Chemists to get powers to hand out prescriptions for common illnesses

CHEMISTS will be given new powers to hand out prescriptions for the most common ailments under plans to ease the pressure on GPs.

Rishi Sunak will unveil plans today to free up 15 million GP appointments by making it easier for patients to get the help they need on the high street.

It will mean millions with minor infections and illnesses will be able to get prescription medicines direct without seeing a doctor first.

The plan, which will take effect by the winter, will enable pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics and antiviral drugs for conditions including ear infections, sore throats, sinusitis, shingles and minor urine infections.

In a victory for the Mail’s Save Our Local Pharmacies campaign, ministers have agreed an extra £645million to expand community pharmacy services over the next two years.

The cash is less than had been hoped for by a sector which is losing one pharmacy every five days.

But it was welcomed as a step forward

‘Game-changer for patients’

by industry leaders last night. Thorrun Govind, chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, said the plans were a ‘real game-changer’ for patients.

Mr Sunak, whose mother ran a pharmacy in Southampton, said: ‘We will end the 8am rush and expand the services offered by pharmacies, meaning patients can get their medication quickly.

‘This will relieve pressure on our hard-working GPs by freeing up 15 million appointments, and end the all-too-stressful wait on the end of the phone for patients.’

The expansion of pharmacy services is part of a wider ‘primary care recovery plan’ designed to restore public satisfaction with GP services after the pandemic.

Other measures include investing £240million in new phone systems to cut waiting times, allowing some patients to access NHS services such as physiotherapy without a GP referral, and allowing most to access their health records and test results online.

A typical GP practice receives more than 100 calls in the first hour of a Monday morning, with many patients giving up before they can get through.

Ministers believe the package could free up 15 million GP appointments a year, 4.5 per cent of the 340 million total.

Industry experts gave the new plans a cautious welcome. Janet Morrison, chief of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, said pharmacies were ‘ideally placed to do more to help patients’ – but warned that more money was ‘critical’. She added: ‘Getting this money into pharmacies quickly is critical when many are battling for survival.’

THE announcement of an unprecedented expansion in healthcare services provided by high street pharmacies represents the kind of fresh, radical thinking the NHS needs to secure its long-term survival.

For the first time, local chemists will be allowed to write prescriptions for seven common conditions – including earache, sore throats and urinary tract infections – without reference to a GP.

Almost half a million women will be able to access oral contraception without having to speak to a practice nurse and blood pressure checks will also be provided.

In all, the changes are expected to free up 15 million GP appointments for those with more serious conditions.

As well as cutting waiting times at GP surgeries, this should also relieve pressure on hospital A&E departments, where many patients go by default because they are unable to see their family doctor.

As the son of a community pharmacist and a GP, Rishi Sunak knows exactly how crucial this reform can be to fulfilling his pledge to cut NHS waiting lists.

But there is a massive hitch. Owing to soaring wholesale medicine prices, the spike in energy and staffing costs, chronic government underfunding and late repayments, community pharmacies are engaged in a desperate fight for survival.

Nearly 700 closed between 2015 and 2022. And with nine out of ten making a loss on dispensing medicines to NHS patients, the toll will only rise.

The Mail has campaigned passionately for government action to save our pharmacies before it’s too late. Contracts, unchanged since 2015, must be updated to reflect rocketing costs and reimbursement urgently speeded up.

Real-terms funding levels have fallen by a staggering 30 per cent in those eight years. It is an unsustainable situation. Local chemists provide a community lifeline – somewhere the elderly and unwell can go without an appointment and confide their problems to a sympathetic ear.

They are only too willing to shoulder more of the burden placed on the NHS but they simply can’t do it without the necessary resources. Mr Sunak should know that better than anyone.

If he wants these vital reforms to succeed, he must pay pharmacists a fair price for their efforts.