Can pharmacies help solve the NHS crisis?

High street pharmacists in England will, for the first time, be able to prescribe medication, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced today. Minor conditions that require simple treatments may no longer involve prolonged waits at the GP – and patients requiring routine checks, like blood pressure measurements, will also be able to access these at their local pharmacies. 

This simple shift will help ease the pressure on local health services: it is predicted to free up 15 million appointments and ensure that GPs have more time to deal with complex patients. It will also have a knock-on effect on hospital waiting times and, hopefully, the numbers on waiting lists – which have hit highs of seven million. If more patients can be dealt with in a pharmacy, fewer patients will be forced to attend emergency departments.

Pharmacists are highly-skilled professionals, and the move to ensure those working in the community can prescribe independently is much needed, as I wrote in December last year.