Steve Barclay, health secretary has suggested that the ‘Pharmacy First’ model is the solution to help alleviate pressure from GP’s and free up more appointments.
Pharmacy First is a service widely available in Scotland but not fully established in England. As a Scottish pharmacist, I have provided the pharmacy first service to many patients on a daily basis which ment they do not need to make an appointment with their GP. The service covers many minor ailments from pain relief, hayfever treatment, topical treatments for eczema, children’s health and many more. Patient can attend their local pharmacy and have a consultation with the pharmacist who can prescribe a suitable treatment (and refer to GP when appropriate) and counsel the patient on the medicine and advice required.
This service allows pharmacists to utilise their clinical and consultation skills and gives patients access to advice and treatment when they cannot get an appointment with their GP. While I think it is great that England roll out this service, I do believe there isn’t enough support and investment in pharmacy to manage the increase in workload. Although this saves time and workload from the GP’s, its only adds further workload into the community pharmacies who are already under a huge amount of pressure, especially at this time of year. Pharmacies cannot manage workload proactively as they are a walk-in service and do not work on an appointment basis. I think if further funding and support is implemented into pharmacies, this service can be so beneficial in managing the healthcare workload between GP’s and pharmacists fairly and appropriately. Furthermore, in my experience what helps in implementing services like this successfully is training for the staff – the GP surgeries should know how to promote this service to their patients as I have had many patients asking for antibiotics for chest infection for examples on the Pharmacy First Service when that isn’t something that is available. This leads to frustrated patients being given the wrong information and more trips back and forth between the surgery and pharmacy. I do believe here is an opportunity for a more collaborate working relationship between surgeries and pharmacies which can be utilised. Pharmacy First is the beginning of allowing pharmacists more prescribing powers but hopefully that follows with support too.