By Press Release
A leading Island pharmacist has said the new government ‘Pharmacy First’ scheme will do nothing to ease the pressure on doctor’s appointment waiting times, claiming: “The current system is broken and needs a major overhaul and realistic funding at 2023 levels.”
On Tuesday, a £645m investment in community pharmacies was promised over the next two years to support a pharmacy common conditions service, along with the NHS Pharmacy Contraception and NHS Hypertension Case-Finding services. Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, travelled from London to Southampton by helicopter to promote the scheme, attracting criticism from many, including some of his own MPs.
The investment was announced as part of a blueprint, setting out plans to improve access to primary care, including to allow patients who need prescription medication for seven common conditions to get them directly from a pharmacy.
Tim Gibbs has run Yarmouth Pharmacy for 17 years and often works 85-90 hours a week, including evening deliveries after work hours to villages outside the town, covering an area from Alum Bay to Brighstone and Shorwell.
But he said: “The new Pharmacy First service is a scheme which covers such conditions as ear infections, sore throats, sinusitis, shingles and minor urinary tract infections. However, the scheme announced has no details on how it will operate. There is going to be a period of consultation and it is hoped it will be in operation by the end of 2023.
“Pharmacies in England are closing at an alarming rate due to the government freezing funding, despite massively increasing operating costs. It is becoming very difficult to obtain a number of essential medications, and this also takes up a huge amount of time.
“The costs of medicines are also not always reimbursed at the price the pharmacy pays for them, so we lose money. The other major problem is time. There are only seven days in a week and 24 hours in a day. The government wants pharmacists to do more and more without appropriate funding.
“This puts more and more pressure on pharmacies as they cannot afford to employ extra staff to cover the extra workload. The current system is broken and needs a major overhaul with realistic funding at 2023 levels.”
