In response to criticism of the Pharmacy First service reported in The Times (BMA leaders suggest GPs ‘overwhelm A&Es’ in revolt against NHS reforms), the CCA co-signed a letter with fellow national pharmacy bodies. You can read the letter in full below.
Letter sent to The Times
Dear Sir,
It was extremely troubling to see yesterday in black and white (BMA leaders suggest GPs ‘overwhelm A&Es’ in revolt against NHS reforms) the rhetoric from some GPs and the adversarial approach to the wider NHS. Their words suggest a total disregard for patients, other clinical professionals in pharmacies and hospitals, as well as the wider public who rely on these services day in and day out.
The primary purpose of Pharmacy First is to relieve pressure on access to GP appointments – a massive problem for patients – so that GPs can concentrate their energies on higher acuity needs of patients. The service is designed to enable all clinical professionals – whether pharmacists and their teams, or GPs and theirs, to act at the top of their professional licence in the best interests of patients and communities.
If some GPs would rather block this than focus on helping patients and the public to get the healthcare they need, when they need it, it says something quite worrying about their understanding of the crisis facing the NHS. Pharmacy First is a critical service which is already helping millions of people and has the potential to do so much more – many GPs value it, but more importantly, patients do, and public polling shows time and again that they want community pharmacies to be empowered to do even more.
Sneering at other NHS clinical professionals does nothing to solve the crisis in the NHS or the nation’s health. Competition between healthcare providers has been exacerbated in the health service for many years by the way in which services are commissioned. This does not excuse the appalling rhetoric we have seen this week, and which we know sadly some pharmacists have to deal with on a regular basis, but it does underline once again why we need Government to facilitate the shift from competition to collaboration, or from fragmentation to integration, as it delivers its Ten-Year Health Plan.
There are other examples across the country where GPs and pharmacists work closely together to ensure patients get the very best from the NHS, and this is the collaborative and cooperative approach we applaud.
Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive, Community Pharmacy England
Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive, Company Chemists’ Association
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive, Independent Pharmacies Association
Henry Gregg, Chief Executive, National Pharmacy Association
Prof Claire Anderson, President, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Letter as it appeared in the Times
