Pharmacies to be given powers to hand out prescriptions in England
Channel 4 News
Community pharmacies in England will be given new cash to take on some patient treatment roles, from basic prescriptions to routine tests – designed to relieve the pressure on GPs.
While doctors have broadly welcomed the plans, they said it wouldn’t address the acute staff shortage – while the Prime Minister would not be drawn on government promises to provide 6,000 more GPs by 2024.
Read NHS England’s press release
Channel 4 News interviewed our CEO Janet Morrison on the news. Further coverage later appeared elsewhere.
CEO Janet Morrison said:
“Thousands of people already rely on their local community pharmacy every day and we hope these new plans from Government and the NHS will allow pharmacies to do even more to help the public. As trusted and expert health and wellbeing resources, pharmacies are ideally placed to do more to help patients and the public to stay well and in doing so to relieve some of the burden on GPs. These Government plans are a very welcome step towards putting pharmacies even more at the heart of primary care and prevention – where they belong – and making better use of pharmacists’ clinical skills. The plans also give pharmacies some desperately needed investment. But until detailed negotiations have concluded we won’t know the extent to which this will help pharmacies through the pressures they are facing, but we do know that getting this money into pharmacies quickly will be critical at a time when many pharmacies are battling for survival.”
Coverage:
Channel 4 News broadcast featuring our CEO Janet Morrison
BBC Breakfast interview with PSNC Committee Member and AIM Board Member Jay Patel
Further information
