The Conservative health spokesman (Dr Liam Fox) has said that the Conservative Party would introduce pharmacist repeat prescribing.
Speaking at the National Health Service Confederation's annual conference, in Glasgow on June 28, Dr Fox said: "We will introduce a new system called ‘Prescription first' medicines. This will reduce the need for patients to return to the doctor for repeat prescriptions, as they will simply be able to exchange old for new at the chemist on payment of the prescription fee, or on the production of a ‘prescription first' card for the appropriate prescription fee. The system will operate for drugs that it is safe to continue once a physician has determined there is no contraindication initially for that patient."
Repeat prescriptions were used too often by doctors as a way of monitoring patients at the patient's inconvenience, Dr Fox said. Doctors should have sufficient recall systems running separately to be able to maintain the quality of clinical care without the ridiculous hindrances which currently existed.
"This system would also remove a huge, unnecessary workload from doctors and their receptionists as well as improving the utilisation of pharmacists, an underused resource," he added.
Dr Fox also told the conference that the Conservatives would create an exceptional medicines fund (EMF) to pay for particularly expensive treatments. Health authorities would no longer need to fund exceptional treatments; they would be financed centrally.
Ministers would fix an EMF budget each year and a committee of senior clinicians and academics would decided how it would be spent. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence would assess the cost and clinical effectiveness of exceptional medicines, while the committee would determine clinical criteria for their use.
The NICE would then oversee the audit of doctors who prescribed medicines funded from the EMF, to ensure that they had complied fully with the prescribing criteria.