The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7253 p816
14 June 2003

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PAGB: Proprietary Association of Great Britain (www.pagb.org.uk)

"We need a minister for self-care": PAGB

A minister for self-care is needed to move forward what is currently a disjointed agenda without central co-ordination, according to the Proprietary Association of Great Britain.

Speaking earlier this week at at joint meeting of the PAGB, the Doctor-Patient Partnership (DPP) and the All-Party Group on Primary Care and Public Health, and ahead of an expected Cabinet reshuffle, Gopa Mitra, the PAGB's head of public affairs, said: "Self-care is on the Government's agenda but we haven't seen a cohesive plan to take this forward. We need a voice — we need a minister for self-care."

Ms Mitra said that a survey, funded by the PAGB and the Department of Health and carried out by Professor Alison Blenkinsopp from Keele University, had found 36 schemes in England addressing the management of minor ailments in primary care. These involved pharmacists, general practitioners, nurses and emergency care settings. They were capable of reducing the workload of GPs by up to 40 per cent. The full results are to be published shortly.

Dr Simon Fradd, of the DPP, said that reducing GP consultations for minor self-limiting illnesses by 20 per cent would be the equivalent of having 7,000 extra GPs. The main problems stopping this are the public's poor knowledge of how to manage minor ailments themselves, fears among parents of childhood illnesses, cost considerations for those on low incomes and GP resistance to sharing medical records.