The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7255 p910
28 June 2003

Society summary

Briefing paper discusses pharmacists' role in managing minor ailments

A briefing paper has been launched by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to highlight pharmacists' role in managing minor ailments and easing pressure on general practitioners and the wider National Health Service.

The paper, launched on 25 June during the NHS Confederation Conference in Glasgow, is to be distributed to primary care trusts and key health bodies. It focuses on schemes offering alternative ways of dealing with minor ailments, which it says account for up to 150 million GP consultations a year. It estimates that each GP's workload could be reduced by up to 16 consultations a day if self-medication were encouraged for certain minor ailments.

Dr David Colin-Thomé, National Clinical Director for Primary Care at the Department of Health, is supporting the briefing. In a foreword to the document he says that most GPs spend a significant proportion of their working day dealing with minor ailments. For many patients, this is an inconvenient and inefficient way of getting help to look after themselves. For health professionals, it can be a distraction from tasks that really need a medical input.

"Pharmacists have an important role to play in providing alternative support for such patients in a convenient and accessible manner from their local community pharmacy. There are now more than a dozen successful schemes around the country which enable this to happen, safely and with little extra administrative burden."

The Society's Director of Public Affair, Beverley Parkin, said: "This briefing is the latest in a series of initiatives by the Society to ensure that pharmacists' full contribution to health care is understood by NHS decision-makers."