COVENTRY North West MP Taiwo Owatemi is calling on the Government to give pharmacies a greater role in delivering healthcare to help ease NHS backlogs.
Ms Owatemi is chairperson of the All-Party Parliamentary Pharmacy Group (APPG) which this week launched ‘The Future of Pharmacy’ manifesto.
The document was compiled following an inquiry by the APPG after the Covid-19 pandemic generated a significant backlog of demand in the health service.
And it maps out how pharmacies can help address some of those issues.
Ms Owatemi said: “There is a tremendous opportunity for ministers to empower local pharmacies and pharmacy teams to help even more patients and use their skills to support efforts to clear NHS backlogs.
“But right now pharmacies are being squeezed by a combination of funding and workforce pressures.
“People are often shocked to learn how many local pharmacies are lost each year due to financial pressure. If ever there was a time to properly fund and support our pharmacies it is now.”
Among the report’s main findings were that pharmacies were ideally suited to supporting the NHS with the nation’s growing healthcare challenges.
Pharmacists are highly skilled medical professionals who undertake more than 65million informal consultations per year without being funded to for the ever increasing volumes.
Pharmacy advice saves around 32.2million GP appointments per year and identify 2.5 million patients a year requiring urgent advice or treatment.
They help with better management of long-term conditions and deliver preventative healthcare interventions.
Based on the evidence submitted, it was felt they could be even better-used in the wider healthcare service.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) deduces that delivering minor illness care through community pharmacies, rather than GPs, could also see services delivered at much lower cost.
Estimates suggest the cost of providing 40million minor ailments GP appointments per year cost £1.2billion but, carried out by pharmacists, it would only be £560million.
The transfer of the appointments to the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) could potentially save £640million-a-year (a 53 per cent total cost reduction) which could be reinvested elsewhere.
The report stated a review and rethink on how pharmacies are funded was needed and any staff shortfalls addressed.
Amd it details trials of ‘Pharmacy First’ schemes in Bradford, Cornwall and on the Isle of Wight to see the impact pharmacies could have.
Click https://www.pharmacyappg.co.uk/news/all-party-pharmacy-group-publishes-new-the-future-of-pharmacy-manifesto-report-23-january-2023 for the full report.
