Pilot projects that will involve community pharmacists in National Health Service prescribing of non-prescription medicines are under consideration by the Government.
During Question Time in the House of Commons on November 23, the Minister of State for Health (Mr John Denham) said that there had been discussions between the Government and the pharmaceutical and medical professions about proposals to enable pharmacists to supply on the NHS some medicines that did not need to be prescribed.
"We are not in a position to introduce firm proposals, but it is a matter that is being given close scrutiny," Mr Denham said.
Responding to a question on rural matters, from Mr Mark Todd (Lab, Derbyshire South), the Minister said that Lord Hunt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health) was soon to meet the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the British Medical Association's general practitioners' committee to consider issues between rural pharmacists and doctors.
Mr Denham said that the Government was prepared to consider, without obligation, any joint proposals that came forward to resolve conflicts between pharmacists and doctors in rural areas. It was such proposals that Lord Hunt was to hear, but it was too early to say whether the dispute would be resolved.