Promoting medicines on the basis of price will seriously impede the extension of self-medication in Britain, the Restrictive Practices Court has been told. That was a key message to the court in an expert report prepared by Mrs Sheila Kelly (executive director, Proprietary Association of Great Britain). Mrs Kelly said that discounting, special offers and "buy one, get one free" promotions would lead to reduced profitability, advertising cutbacks, range reductions and long-term reduced sales. This environment would force manufacturers to move products from pharmacy classification to general sale list status as quickly a possible in order to maintain sales. At the same time it would reduce the attraction of moving products from the prescription-only to pharmacy category. "Unless switched products have the necessary safety profile and enough potential sales to become GSL, they may not justify the investment needed to switch them from POM status in the first place," Mrs Kelly said. "The irony is that this has become an issue just at a time when encouraging self-care and self-medication has become official Government policy," Mrs Kelly went on. "The new National Health Service plan, which has just been released, commits the Government to a self-care policy in the development of the NHS. Specific commitments include: the availability of a wider range of OTC medicines; a requirement for NHS Direct to refer people to help from their local pharmacies; plans for primary care groups to have schemes in place so that people can get more help from pharmacists in using medicines; improvements in out-of-hours pharmacy services; and professional training with an emphasis on self-care for chronic conditions. . . . I am sure that the type of pharmacy the NHS plan envisages is not a supermarket pharmacy or even a large pharmacy multiple. It is an independent pharmacy with a pharmacist who is there most of the time, who knows the customers and the local doctors, who is approachable and who has time to help and provide the advice and reassurance needed."