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.
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