Starting from next month, around 500,000 women in England will be able to have access to contraceptive pills from pharmacies without requiring a GP appointment. Pill treatments and care for common ailments such as sore throats and insect bites will be provided by the Pharmacy First scheme. NHS England has stated that this approach is practical and secure which will make NHS services more accessible for patients.
Pharmacists who opt to join the scheme will also have the opportunity to offer treatment and advice for an additional seven common illnesses including sinusitis, impetigo, urinary tract infection, shingles, earache and infected insect bites. It has been declared that more blood pressure checks will also be extended by pharmacies to deliver over two million by 2025 to assist in anticipating over 1,000 heart attacks and strokes. The objective is, in the long run, to free up at least ten million GP appointments yearly.
England will thus line up with Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland where similar services are being delivered. Victoria Atkins, the new Health and Social Care Secretary welcomed this innovation, indicating that such moves will assure greater freedom of women’s choice concerning contraception and it will make GP appointments more accessible.
While the plan has been well received, some pharmacists have warned that community outlets were shutting at a worrying pace due to insufficient funding caused by inflation and neglect. Tase Oputu, who chairs the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s English Pharmacy Board, welcomed this move, but the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies CEO, Dr Leyla Hannbeck, warned that the success of this plan will depend on the level of bureaucracy and how much compensations pharmacists receive for their time
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More