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Prescription medication for seven common conditions will be available directly from pharmacies under new plans to reduce pressure on GPs.
The conditions include earache, sore throat, urinary tract infections, sinusitis, impetigo, shingles and infected insect bites.
Around half a million women will also be able to access oral contraception from their local pharmacy, without needing a prescription from their GP.
Thorrun Govind, Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England said the scheme will be a “game-changer” for patients, and will improve access to healthcare in the most deprived communities, reducing health inequalities.
Care navigators to redirect patients to alternate services
The ‘Pharmacy First’ scheme is funded by £645 million over two years, and is estimated to free up around 15 million GP appointments over the next two years.
The funding will also provide better phone technology for GP teams so they can better manage multiple calls and redirect them to other services where appropriate.
Extra training will also be provided to staff answering calls at GP practices so that those who would be better seen by physiotherapists or mental health specialists, for example, are able to bypass their GP.
Successful care navigation can help direct 40% of requests more effectively and speeds up appointments for those who need them, according to the DHSC.
Pharmacy First scheme is “not a silver bullet”
Health leaders have welcomed the measures, but warn that if patients are to receive quicker, more efficient and high-quality care, then more work will need to be done to retain and recruit more GPs, nurses and doctors.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) said: “Whilst all these initiatives are positive steps, none are the silver bullet that we desperately need to address the intense workload and workforce pressures GPs and their teams are working under – we need thousands more GPs to be able to use these measures effectively to provide the services patients need.”
“The only true solution is to increase numbers of fully-qualified, full-time equivalent GPs, both in the short and long terms by training and retaining them – and we look to the long-awaited NHS workforce plan with anticipation, to see how this will be achieved,” she added.
A lack of staff will “prevent effective change from happening”
The British Medical Association and the NHS Confederation have heeded the same message, and are concerned that the plans will have little positive effect if the staffing crisis is not addressed.
Dr Kieran Sharrock, acting chair of the BMA England GP committee, said: “More community services are needed to relieve pressures on GPs, but what these measures don’t consider are the continuing cuts to public health funding and that more community pharmacies are closing across England.
“These ambitions to help GPs are in fact just set up to fail, with the growing problems in workforce numbers and infrastructure that we have acting as barriers that will prevent effective change from happening.”
If we are to end the “8am scramble”, Ruth Rankine director of primary care at the NHS Confederation says the government’s ambitions will “need to go further to retain the workforce we already have.”
“Otherwise we risk further frustrating patients by not having enough staff to deliver care,” she added.