This site is intended for Healthcare Professionals only

Leave community pharmacies alone!

Opinion bookmark icon off

Leave community pharmacies alone!

The Department of Health must stand up to the Treasury and tell it to leave community pharmacies alone – they are needed to save the NHS, says Paul Mayberry of the Mayberry Pharmacy Group in South Wales.

What on Earth is happening in England? Jeremy Hunt has just upset all the junior doctors by imposing a new contract on them so there will probably be more strikes. There are not enough GPs to look after patients and some practices are closing. There are not enough nurses to perform the services expected of them and recruitment is failing, especially in deprived areas, while many are off work with stress.

But hey. There are more schools of pharmacy producing more pharmacy graduates than every before, so let’s get these highly trained, under-utilised health professionals and put them in every GP surgery in the country to save the day. Right?

Wrong! We already have more than 11,000 community pharmacies in England. They are on every high street as well as in rural localities, close to where people live and work. They are the most accessible healthcare professionals in the country. They can be seen without an appointment and without need for registration.

They are the only healthcare professional to see healthy people as well as those that are ill. So why would you hide them away in a GP surgery and put them on public sector contracts, with high rates of pay and generous NHS pensions and benefits?

Community pharmacists could be used to relieve a huge amount of the pressure on GPs – and very cost-effectively – if NHS England decided to utilise their skills. But instead it seems that the Treasury and Department of Health are hell bent on closing at least 3,000 pharmacies to save money.

The Department of Health could make two very quick easy wins to save money and free up GPs to see the patients who really need to see them. Moving repeat dispensing into community pharmacy, according to NHS England’s own figures, would save 2.7m GP hours. That is the equivalent of 2,000 more GPs in England.

If the 50m GP consultations per year for minor ailments were moved into community pharmacy, that would release the equivalent of 6,000 GPs. And don’t forget that 19 per cent of A&E consultations are for selftreatable conditions, many of which could be dealt with by a community pharmacist.

The Government argues that there are too many community pharmacies in England and that they are too clustered around surgeries. That may be the case, but doesn’t it mean they are in a great position to help GPs?

Same pressures

Wales is under exactly the same pressures in primary care, but the Welsh government isn’t looking to close community pharmacies. In fact, it has just announced funding to give most pharmacies the IT platform needed to allow them to do common ailments, discharge medication reviews and emergency supplies. The local health boards are commissioning more services, not fewer – and not just smoking cessation and EHC services, but respiratory checks and palliative care initiatives.

Repeat dispensing is being used in care homes to free up surgery time and reduce medication waste, potentially another significant saving. It seems the Treasury has decided to cut funds to English pharmacies without thinking it through, without understanding what they do and, more importantly, what they could do. Investing in the existing community pharmacy network would lead to much bigger savings in the long-term, where saving £4bn in training 8,000 GPs would be just the start.

The Welsh government is not looking to close community pharmacies

Copy Link copy link button

Opinion

Hear the opinions and comment from some of the top names in pharmacy. Make sure you get in touch and share your opinions with us too.

Share: