Patients will be able to obtain prescription medicines and oral contraception directly from pharmacies under a blueprint to ease the pressure on GPs’ appointments.
Treatments for seven common conditions including earache, sore throat and urinary tract infections will be available without seeing a doctor under plans announced by Rishi Sunak. The Prime Minister hopes the measures will help end the “all-too stressful wait” for appointments by freeing up 15 million slots at doctors’ surgeries over the next two years.
Pharmacists themselves would be able to write the prescriptions under the reform that ministers hope will be introduced this winter after a consultation with the industry. The number of people able to access blood pressure checks in pharmacies would be more than doubled to 2.5 million a year.
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Self-referrals will also be increased for access to services such as physiotherapy, hearing tests and podiatry without the requirement to see a GP first. Mr Sunak announced the measures as he seeks to bounce back from the Conservatives’ poor performance in last week’s local elections, which saw the Tories shed 960 council seats.
“I am getting on with delivering on my five priorities and transforming primary care is the next part of this Government’s promise to cut NHS waiting lists,” he said. “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 8am rush and expand the services offered by pharmacies, meaning patients can get their medication quickly and easily.”
The Prime Minister has said he is registered with an NHS GP after acknowledging using private healthcare in the past. His family used to run a pharmacy in Southampton. He outlined the plans as industry groups warned more pharmacies will close unless ministers provide more funding to the “struggling” sector.
It is hoped that almost half-a-million women would no longer need to speak to a nurse or GP to get oral contraception. The other medications that GPs would be able to hand out would treat conditions including sinusitis, infected insect bite, impetigo and shingles.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the “ambitious package” will help transform how care is provided within the health service. “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,” she said.
Thorrun Govind, the chairwoman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, said the plans are a “real game-changer” for patients. The proposals, backed by £645 million of spending over two years, come on top of measures to make it easier to get GP appointments with online booking tools.
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