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There is a significant amount of work to be done before the general public understands the term €primary care€ and regards community pharmacies as an integral part of the offering, according to a cross-sector paper published last month.

'We are primary care', a 24-page document written by Pharmacy Voice in conjunction with NHS Alliance, the Optical Confederation and the National Community Hearing Association , calls for the concept of primary care to be better explained to the general public.

A survey of some 2,400 people conducted by YouGov and included in the paper shows that almost half of respondents erroneously view hospital emergency departments as part of primary care €“ significantly more than the 34 per cent who recognise community pharmacy as part of the sector.

The paper states: €Patients and the public often categorise NHS services into two broad groups: hospital/A&E for emergencies or operations, and a family doctor for everything else. Over time, general practice has become synonymous with primary care and the terms primary care and general practice are often used interchangeably in the media, and by patients and the public [creating] further confusion.€

'We are primary care' marks the latest stage of the Dispensing Health campaign, which was launched by Pharmacy Voice in early 2014 to highlight the vital role community pharmacy plays in delivering NHS services and urge people to not only take responsibility for their own health but to use NHS resources appropriately.

The paper states: €Better understanding of primary care will help the public navigate the NHS more effectively and appropriately, accessing the right service in the right place at the right time, relieving pressure points in general practice and A&E, and delivering better value for the NHS.€

Fairer funding

The organisations involved in putting together the mission paper also call for funding to be redistributed, pointing out that the current allocation of resources does not reflect the fact that around 80 per cent of all contact with health services in this country involves primary care.

Further investment in general practice is not the wisest way of addressing reported access difficulties, they state, as many of the problems that people see their GP with could just as easily €“ and in many cases more appropriately and cheaply €“ be dealt with by other primary care professionals.

Collaboration is key, explains the document, not only in terms of multidisciplinary working at local and national levels, but also through the development of new payment systems that €should support working partnerships and reward primary care for producing health, not just for treating ill health€.