Pharmacies of the future

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The pharmacy white paper 'Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths – delivering the future' was published on 3rd April. It sets out a vision for using the pharmacy sector's capacity and pharmacists' clinical skills to deliver further improvements in pharmaceutical services to patients and the public.

One of the key proposals in the paper is the repositioning and promotion of community pharmacies as healthy living centres. Local pharmacies, whether in the high street or in the heart of a community, are ideally placed to offer the sorts of services that promote and support people's health and wellbeing.

At the six national listening events across England that followed the white paper's publication, delegates were enthusiastic about the concept of healthy living centres and recommended we develop a robust rebranding and communications programme to promote them to the public.

One of pharmacy's greatest assets is its ready accessibility to so many people – particularly within disadvantaged and traditionally hard to reach groups. Convenient locations, opening hours that are longer than many GPs' surgeries and an expanding range of medicines available without a prescription mean that community pharmacies really are ideally placed to contribute more to effective self-care.

A minor ailments scheme is a natural extension of the greater contribution pharmacy can make to healthcare. We are proposing that as well as treating common one-off conditions like coughs and colds, pharmacies will also be able to treat allergies, minor skin conditions and common fungal infections, eye infections and pains and strains – at NHS expense. There are a number of benefits to doing this: people will not have to spend time booking an appointment and attending a GP's practice; and busy GPs, who currently have to deal with an estimated 57 million consultations a year for minor ailments, could be freed up to treat other more serious conditions.

The Minor Ailments Scheme was the subject of another of the workshops at the listening events. Delegate feedback included suggestions that there should be a national specification for the minor ailment service, with a core formulary of medicines, but which could be tailored to suit the health of the local population.

The details of such a scheme have to be worked out and we're working with NHS employers and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee to see how to best incorporate a minor ailments scheme into the pharmacy contractual framework.

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister announced plans to introduce a system of vascular risk assessment, providing another opportunity for pharmacy to extend its role in health and prevention of illness. Here again, it is the accessibility and convenience that community pharmacies offer that will make them a key component in helping to deliver the programme. It will particularly help those groups that are traditionally hard to reach – typically, those who don't regularly seek healthcare or who aren't registered with a GP.

In order to free up pharmacists' and pharmacy staff time to provide these increased services safely and effectively, we need to ensure that technology is supporting them to the full. I am, therefore, particularly pleased that the white paper reiterates our commitment to forging ahead with the deployment of the Electronic Prescription Service.

The white paper also commits to undertaking work with some early adopter PCTs to consider the benefits, governance and practical arrangements of community pharmacists having access to the Summary Care Record. Of course, all of this requires a collaborative approach with other health professionals and this is another area in which we focus in the white paper.

There are currently some challenging health issues in our population, but I believe that the contribution pharmacy can make to healthcare will mean we are in for an exciting and dynamic time ahead.