The Government is ‘acting on’ reports that some GPs have been ‘unwilling’ to direct patients to the Pharmacy First scheme for minor illness, a health minister has said.
During a debate on community pharmacy in the House of Lords, Baroness Winterton of Doncaster asked health minister Baroness Merron whether the Government was ‘aware’ of reports that some GPs have been ‘unwilling to direct patients to community pharmacists’ under the scheme.
Baroness Merron said she was ‘aware’ of this and that the Government is currently ‘acting on’ it.
She said: ‘This is a new service; it needs to bed in. NHSE is working closely with ICBs, GPs and the community pharmacy sector to improve referrals.
‘Funding has also been provided to ICBs for primary care network engagement leads, who should be well placed to support GP teams to refer into the service.
‘We are aware of my noble friend’s point; we are acting on it and we will continue to keep it under review.’
Under the service, GP practices can refer patients to community pharmacies for seven common conditions – including sore throats and ear infections – in a bid to ‘save up to 10 million general practice team appointments a year’.
But since the launch of the scheme, GPs raised concerns around its efficiency, with some pharmacies reportedly directing patients back to general practice for a variety of reasons, including lack of equipment or staff.
Pulse’s sister title The Pharmacist reported last year that almost half of pharmacies in England had seen a reduction in Pharmacy First electronic referrals from GP practices connected to collective action.
The debate also heard that 97% of pharmacy staff ‘report shortages in accessing different medicines as prescribed’, and calls to allow community pharmacies to ‘adjust medicines’ so that they can modify prescriptions, rather than ‘spend time recontacting the GP’ when they are themselves familiar with the items.
Baroness Merron said that this was ‘a good point’ and that ‘work is continuing to resolve that’.
Under the scheme, community pharmacies are allowed to supply antibiotics, which led GPs to raise concerns surrounding antibiotic stewardship, however NHS England has said it will monitor the service for any impact on antimicrobial resistance.
The latest NHS Business Services Authority monthly dispensing data shows that 3.9m Pharmacy First consultations were claimed for between the launch of the service and October last year.
And NHS England has said that only 8% of patients using the service were referred back to their GP practice.
Last year, a group of influential MPs warned that Pharmacy First ‘will fail’ if patients ‘keep having to return to their GPs’.
The seven conditions covered by Pharmacy First
- sinusitis
- sore throat
- acute otitis media
- infected insect bite
- impetigo
- shingles
- uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women
The service makes no sense unless it is a walk-in, first point of contact service (and only that).
Requiring a referral (or even a redirect) from a GP is a nonsense – and sends a confusing message to patients.
Patients need to be able to walk in and see a pharmacist for a minor ailment they can manage, then contact the GP only if they can’t.
Any requirement for a GP to assess and redirect the patient to a pharmacist adds completely unnecessary steps and adds to GP workload, and confuses the message.
I agree with Darren.
If for example you’ve already assessed them on the phone or otherwise why do you need to give the local pharmacist a pay day to do unnecessary work for which they’ll get paid more than you after you’ve indemnified them or shared liability at any rate. This sort of double dipping only makes sense when the medical centre and the pharmacy are owned by the same parent company so it gets paid twice for the same work. Some multi national corporate registered off shore so it pays minimal tax,
Absolutely. Ridiculous concept. Once the patient has contacted the GP it is then imposible to ‘refer’ them to Pharmacy First, because by then they have already seen GP First, and could only be referred to Pharmacy Second.
Either the DoH has lost ability to count, or lost ability to use the English Language.
Pharmacy First. The clue is in the name.
I agree, Never referred a patient to it as I can see and deal with any of those listed conditions in 5 minutes myself. I would appreciate pharmacies sorting out medication queries which still burden our desks in paper form every day and which pharmacies are ( as governments love saying) ‘best placed’ to deal with
Needs to be reinvented without any referral. You can access it without a referral and that saves GP surgery time. But GPs doing the work for free and the. Pharmacies repeating the same work for a fee is pointless.
And as many have said the work involved in doing a referral and convincing the patient it is somehow better than the GP is always going to be more work than just treating the patient.
Whats the point of pharmacy first they shouldnt need the GP to triage for them. easier to do it ourselves.The amount of work they refer to us has not gone down.Pharmacy first is mor BS blue sky thinking.
Also funnily enough patients who contact their GP feel fobbed off if redirected to the pharmacy. Creates a bad image. The powers never complain about full surgeries redirecting stuff to 111 of course do they. The message confusion is from above.
yeah, we do the same work for free, what is their beef with GPs picking up their own work at no extra cost to the tax payer, lunacy BS as always. Them changing scripts to something that is available rather than bothering us, much more useful