North East pharmacists qualified to give medical advice
It's to help relieve pressures on GPs and hospitals
We are being reminded that pharmacists in the North East are qualified to give medical advice.
It is to help relieve pressures on GPs and hospitals as many people underestimate the skills of those in their local chemists.
Pharmacists train for five years before they can qualify, and all pharmacy staff undergo regulated training to ensure the safe and effective use of medications and valuable healthcare services to the community.
Brent Foster, a community pharmacist in County Durham, said: "Traditionally everyone associates pharmacies with picking up medicines that the doctor's prescribed for me. However, the five year of studying that's been done essentially we're expert in medicines and it covers a whole host of other topics as well; we do a little bit of physiology, pharmacology and anatomy.
"In addition to just the supply function, we can advise people exactly on medicines and how those are working, we can diagnose more lower acuity conditions like sore throats, coughs, colds and flus. Those sorts of symptoms of bread and butter stuff in community pharmacy.
"How can we help GPs over the winter pressures? There's been a fair bit of research that tends to suggest around 30 million consultations are for lower acuity conditions, which can be dealt elsewhere. It's about 18 percent of a GP's workload that's taken up with these things, so essentially we can take some of that away.
"Traditionally what tends to happen is you can't get an appointment with your GP, so where are you going to go to next? A lot of people will then turn up at A&E, so you're putting the pressure on the A&E service and you're going to sit there for four hours minimum, for something that could be dealt within 10-15 minutes without the need for an appointment in a pharmacy generally.
"There are some workforce pressures throughout the whole healthcare system and certainly pharmacies are no exception to that. However, we've generally coped and managed things. You may have to wait 10 minutes to be seen but generally all of our staff have had a level of training."
National Pharmacy Association chair, Nick Kaye, said: “Community pharmacy is staffed by a highly skilled workforce which provides a range of clinical services inside and outside the NHS. While many people regard community pharmacists as caring health care professionals who provide a convenient service, they underestimate our clinical skills.
"As a result they could miss out on important pharmacy interventions, some of them potentially lifesaving, like identifying high blood pressure or other conditions that require immediate medical attention.”
Pharmacist and NPA board member, Sukhi Basra, said:
“More and more people recognise that they can come to pharmacies like mine for NHS services like blood pressure checks, but there are still too many missing out. Please don’t overlook the skills and free of charge services on offer close to home in your local pharmacies.”