The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7189 p360-364
16 March 2002

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Letters to the Editor

National Health Service

No need for pharmacists?

From Mrs S. J. L. Barrow, MRPharmS

The NHS Plan promised that over the next few years there would be 7,500 more consultants, 2,000 more general practitioners, 20,000 more nurses and 6,500 more therapists working in the National Health Service. The February 2002 edition of the NHS Magazine includes an article about allied health professionals (AHPs), who make up the 6,500 extra therapists required by the NHS. The article talks about improved status and training, expanding career options and therapist consultants, a seven per cent pay rise for 2002, and a 50 per cent increase in on-call allowances. This sounds excellent.

The list of AHPs, however, is as follows:

• art therapists
• drama therapists
• music therapists
• chiropodists/podiatrists
• dietitians
• occupational therapists
• orthoptists
• orthotists
• prosthetists
• paramedics
• physiotherapists
• diagnostic radiographers
• therapeutic radiographers
• speech and language therapists

The NHS of the future apparently does not need pharmacists, cardiographers, or laboratory and pathology staff, or, probably, some other professions that do not come under the heading of doctors and nurses.

At least we now know exactly where we stand.

Sara Barrow
Senior Pharmacist
Royal Hampshire County Hospital,
Winchester

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