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The £645m funding allocated for England’s common conditions scheme, bundled up with the pharmacy contraception and hypertension case-finding services, comes to an end this month with pharmacists in the dark as to its future.
So time to mark Pharmacy First’s card and suggest some possible ways forward.
The first thing to say is that, generally speaking, it has been a huge success, thanks entirely to the phenomenal efforts of pharmacy teams. Admittedly, this might not immediately seem the case with just £82m – or 12.7 per cent of the total funding package – spent in the first eight months of the current financial year.
Yet despite battling the limitations of the service design, inadequate marketing, clunky IT and disappointing referral rates, well over 2 million consultations have been delivered and it has firmly established community pharmacy as a key access point into NHS primary care.
From such a promising start, it would be relatively straightforward to develop the service by expanding the eligibility criteria for the seven existing conditions and adding more clinical pathways to cover ailments suchas eye infections, migraines and lower back pain.
With independent prescribing, better public awareness and measures to boost referrals and walk-ins, this could free up as many as 40 million GP appointments a year. What’s not to like?
Well, there is one thing. None of this can happen without immediate and sustainable funding to stabilise the sector. To this end, the Government must bite the bullet, however reluctantly, and commit to ensuring that every penny of the £645m is used to bolster the sector’s precarious financial situation.
So come on Messrs Streeting and Kinnock. Don’t blow this golden opportunity.
