Patients across the UK will be able to get prescription medication directly from a pharmacy, without a prior appointment with a GP.
Millions of patients will receive quicker, more convenient access to care from their high street pharmacy, the NHS announced on May 9, along with a “major new GP access recovery plan.”
Patients will be able to buy prescription medication for seven common conditions including earache, sore throat, or urinary tract infections, straight from their local pharmacy. Half a million women will no longer need to speak to a practice nurse or GP to access oral contraception.
NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard praised the new “ambitious package of measures,” saying it will ease the unprecedented demand for GP appointments.
“This blueprint will help us to free up millions of appointments for those who need them most, as well as supporting staff so that they can do less admin and spend more time with patients,” Pritchard said.
The NHS has long suffered from long waiting lists and backlogs in primary and secondary care, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new measure is meant to alleviate the pressure of the 8 a.m. rush to ring the GP or book appointments online for common conditions.
“I know how frustrating it is to be stuck on hold to your GP practice when you or a family member desperately need an appointment for a common illness. We will end the 8 a.m. rush and expand the services offered by pharmacies, meaning patients can get their medication quickly and easily. 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,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
The conditions covered by the new plan also include sinusitis, impetigo, shingles, and infected insect bites.
The Chief Executive of The Patients Association, Rachel Power, welcomed the expansion of services within pharmacies. She said it would enable pharmacists to prescribe more and initiate treatments, expanding the choice for patients.
“Having been part of the transformation board that supported the development of the plan, I’m pleased to see how patients’ concerns have been addressed in it. Its roll out across the UK will make a big difference to so many people,” Power said.
The new policy also provides better phone technology for GP teams to increase patients’ ability to get through to their doctor, and extra training for staff.
‘Completely Out of Touch’
The new policy has been criticised by the opposition in Westminster, with Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting suggesting Sunak was “completely out of touch.”“Expecting the Conservatives to fix this is like expecting an arsonist to put out the fire they started. Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch with the problems facing patients and the NHS. He has no plan to address the shortage of GPs, or to reverse the cut in the number of doctors trained every year. The Conservatives’ announcement is merely tinkering at edges, in contrast to the fundamental reform the NHS needs and Labour is offering,” Streeting said.
In 2022, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) reported that the number of GPs had fallen by 5 percent between September 2015 and 2021, while the population is 4 percent larger and health problems are becoming more complex. At the same time, 42 percent of GPs say that they are planning to quit the profession in the next five years, RCGP reported.
At the same time, in 2022 the government stuck a 7,500 cap on medical and dentistry places for students. This is compared to 10,000 places in 2020 and 2021.
Downing Street, however, attributed the cap to the high public cost for each medical or dental school place (£230,000), as well as the cost of training and national training capacity.
Affected by long waiting times for GP and hospital appointments, staff shortages, and a view that the government doesn’t spend enough money on the NHS, public satisfaction with the service slumped to a record low level in 2022, as reported by the British Social Attitudes survey.
The NHS turns 75 years old on July 5. The government’s GP plan, coming ahead of this milestone, committed to further reducing bureaucracy, cut NHS waiting lists, and secure an increase in the workforce.
