Pharmacies to prescribe cure for NHS
With medical professionals warning NHS surgeries are at breaking point, Rhiann Hanson explores a change set to lighten the load.
For women in England, accessing the contraceptive pill can sometimes be challenging. The process of fighting for an appointment, possibly having to wait over a week for one and then having to collect the prescription can be a hassle. Starting from next month, getting the pill will no longer require a GP appointment and women will simply just have to go to the pharmacy to collect their prescription.
Weight and blood pressure measurements will be taken for check-ups by pharmacists for women taking the combined oestrogen or progestogen pill. However, no checks are required for the mini pill.
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This development comes as part of the NHS primary care access recovery plan, which was firstly initiated on May 9th. The purpose of this plan is to combat some of the pressures that GPs face, like making it simpler for patients to get in touch with their practice and schedule an appointment. The government expects this plan to ‘free up around 15 million GP appointments over the next two years.’
“I’ve been on the pill for over a year and no part of the process of accessing it has ever been simple.”
19-year-old Myah Nettleford, University student from Derby, expresses the issues she’s experienced getting access to the contraceptive pill and has said: “the wait times for an appointment are ridiculous. I’ve been on the pill for over a year and no part of the process of accessing it has ever been simple.” At 8am daily in England there is typically a rush of people calling for an appointment, this regular rush shows how many people are struggling for appointments. The student adds: “I would call at exactly 8am and sometimes there would still be 30 plus people ahead of me in the queue.” Healthwatch mention that the primary care access recovery plan will mean that ‘people will no longer be tied to the 8:00am rush and better digital phone systems will mean people will get through to their practice easier.’
We can hope to see these improvements soon as this rush is not only having an impact on patients, but it is also placing pressure on the GPs themselves. As mentioned in an article by BMJ ‘UK GPs reported higher levels of emotional distress and bigger rises of workload than GPs in nearly all other countries. 71 per cent of UK GPs said they found their job “extremely” or “very stressful.” Ex-manager at Derwent Valley Medical Practice, Derby, Jade Meredith, says the new plan for the contraceptive pill “may take pressure off all GP staff including receptionists as they would have more appointments to offer patients.”
£240 million is planned to be funded by the government for GP practices to help patients get appointments with less waiting times and it is meant to be given over a four-year period starting from January 2024 to 2028. The money is planned to be going towards ‘embracing the latest technology, replacing old analogue phones with modern systems so patients never get engaged tones and easy-to-use online tools to ensure patients get the care they need as soon as possible,’ as said on the Gov website.
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Although the experienced 34-year-old believes “it’s a good idea to try and reduce demand on the GPs and make the contraceptive pill more available to women without needing an appointment,” she also thinks there could be negatives to this. She explains “when women have a pill check they usually have conversations with the nurse or advanced practitioners about reminders for cervical screenings, stopping smoking and medication reviews etc. If the GP surgery isn’t dealing with the pill prescription, then these conversations may not be had.” It is noted on the Gov website that there will be extensive training for pharmacists, however exact details aren’t added so it is not yet guaranteed that all areas for patients on the pill will be covered. Myah is also hoping that “the pharmacists will be able to ask important questions for my own peace of mind.”
“It’s a good idea to try and reduce demand on the GP’s and make the contraceptive pill more available to women without needing an appointment.”
The process of women obtaining the contraceptive pill has never been entirely easy; when the pill was initially made available on the NHS in the UK in 1961, it was only available to married women for six years. It was then, in 1974, that family planning clinics began to prescribe the pill to single women. For women to be able to walk into their local pharmacy soon and gain supply of the contraceptive pill is a step forward and shows the development of gaining easier access of the pill for women.
It is not just the prescription pill that pharmacists will soon be able to control. In addition, they will be managing UTIs, earaches, sore throats, sinusitis, impetigo, shingles, and infected insect bites. Mrs Meredith says that because of pharmacies taking on these services “they may be overwhelmed and in high demand.”
“Pharmacies may be overwhelmed and in high demand.””
The different services that pharmacies offer have advanced over the years, and they have taken on a lot of different responsibilities for patients. They offer services that only the GP would previously offer at one point such as flu vaccinations. ‘NHS England and NHS Improvement has commissioned an advanced service for community pharmacies to provide fly vaccinations since 2015,’ the NHS website says. Some pharmacies also offer walk-ins for COVID-19 vaccinations and according to healthwatch Coventry ‘over 22 million COVID vaccines delivered by community pharmacies.’ This further shows how the purposes of pharmacies are changing and how there are services to share the responsibilities that GPs have.
However, a lot of issues that lie within the NHS are down to the fact that as a whole, they are understaffed. This means that although the GPs may have a less workload when this plan is put into force, pharmacies could also struggle. The number of operating pharmacies in the UK has significantly dropped since 2015 and in the past eight years 2,786 have closed according to data from statista. A recent NHS summary shows that more community pharmacies are closing compared to opening and in 2022/2023 297 pharmacies opened while 388 closed. Although the NHS have committed to investing ‘up to £645 million over the next two years to expand community pharmacy services,’ so we can hope to see positive changes with this investment.
The primary care access recovery plan could be a step forward in the correct direction for patients and the NHS and former GP manager says, “as long as the pharmacy staff are trained and have a GP support when required it should be effective.” If this plan executes well this has the potential to relieve stress for GPs, allow them to deal with more severe or on-going heath issues on the day, free up appointments for patients and allow more prescriptions to be easily accessible. For patients this plan could also relieve stress especially when calling in as there are also aims to get better digital phone systems, meaning people can get through to their GP easier than before. The NHS website will also update its material to better assist and add new details about women’s health and local services.