Expansion of pharmacy services ‘to relieve NHS’

The expansion of services available to consumers at high-street pharmacies will relieve the pressure on the NHS, it has been claimed, with pharmacists to offer consumers diagnostic tests.

Independent public health charity PharmacyHealthLink reports that trained pharmacists are able to offer such services to patients, while noting that in any ambiguous cases patients will still be referred to GPs.

Veronica Wray, a spokesperson for the charity, said: “GPs have so many other things they are meant to be doing, looking after sick people.

“If this is just diagnostic testing, there’s no reason why a community pharmacy can’t do that.”

She added that this is a potentially sensitive issue and advocated the training of pharmacists to avoid concerning patients.

The charity notes that while some women with young children and the elderly are aware of the range of services available to them at pharmacies, much of the population, especially men, do not use pharmacies as often as they could.

Last month, the Department of Health announced plans for “historic” changes to the pharmacy profession, with proposals for the establishment of two separate regulatory bodies for the industry.

According to the plans, a General Pharmaceutical Council would regulate the pharmacy industry, while a Royal College would lead the profession.