A miracle has happened in Britain’s pharmacies

A small miracle happened in politics recently. Someone had a good idea, and then enacted it really quickly. I popped into my local chemist’s last week and the nice chap behind the counter recommended a few treatments, adding that if I still felt rough in a few days, he could give me some antibiotics. Eh? Wouldn’t I have to contact my GP? Apparently not. I could just come back to the shop. This was handy. Unlike doctors’ surgeries, shops tend to be open at the weekend, when people are actually free to buy things. They’re funny like that, shops.

I then remembered reading about a recent proposal to allow pharmacists to supply antibiotics without a GP visit for certain conditions, but assumed it would follow the usual government timescale, being trialled in 2031 after a lengthy ‘consultation period’ during which lawyers and special-interest groups would ruin the idea. But in this case, freakishly, it just happened. The BMA probably whinged a bit, as they do, but for once it wasn’t even referred to the ECHR or something.

This is good. Pharmacists are an underused resource: they may know as much about pharmacology as your doctor, and they can make additional money by selling you a Mason Pearson hairbrush after discussing your symptoms. Most of all, though, this option reduces our propensity to see the GP as a first port of call for everything, freeing them to do more valuable work.

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Here’s my question. How many simple solutions of this kind are within easy reach but routinely overlooked because of the peculiar nature of politics? Is our current system uniquely ill-suited to solving practical problems like this? A weird class of people who have been in politics all their lives, or have previously worked as lawyers or academics, have been groomed for their ability to win arguments, not to solve problems.