The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7212 p238
24 August 2002

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National Pharmaceutical Association (www.npa.co.uk)

Minor ailment schemes can help meet access targets for PCTs, says NPA

MINOR ailment schemes run by community pharmacies can help primary care trusts meet targets for how quickly patients get to see a health care professional, the National Pharmaceutical Association says. The NPA has launched a resource pack to support pharmacies and PCTs thinking of setting up such schemes.

The NHS plan for England says that, by 2004, patients should be seen by a general practitioner within 48 hours or by another primary care professional within 24 hours. The Department of Health is supporting this with £168m through the primary care access fund. According to research from the Proprietary Association of Great Britain, up to 40 per cent of general practitioners' time is taken up dealing with patients suffering from minor ailments. Minor ailment schemes can transfer part of this workload to community pharmacies.

The NPA's resource pack, entitled "Minor ailment schemes: lessons learnt to date", is based on a meeting held last year which brought together project managers from a number of successful minor ailment schemes. These included the Care at the Chemist scheme in South Sefton, Merseyside (PJ, 1 December 2001, p770), and the Tyne and Wear voucher scheme (PJ, 9 December 2000, p845). These schemes have tried to overcome the problem of pharmacists not being able to supply medicines on the NHS to patients exempt from prescription charges. Thus, these patients visit their GPs in order to obtain items on prescription, free of charge.

The resource pack details key areas for consideration when developing such schemes. These include whether the service is necessary, how it will be established, run and funded, which ailments and treatments should be included, how the scheme can be evaluated, and how it should be communicated to the public and to health care professionals taking part. It says that schemes are most likely to succeed in areas of high deprivation where GPs are concerned about inappropriate appointments and their workload. An effective project manager and a high profile "champion", such as a senior primary care manager, are essential.

The NPA advises that the best way to start is with a small scheme covering a number of agreed ailments. If this is successful then further ailments can be added later. Funding is the most contentious area, particularly securing ongoing funding and the issue of how much pharmacists should be paid per consultation. The resource pack includes a draft formulary, based on one used in Croydon.

Copies of the resource pack are available to NPA members and PCTs by calling 01727 832161 ext 3217 (e-mail nhs.dev@npa.co.uk).