Public happy to deal with pharmacists over repeat prescriptions
Most people are happy to deal with pharmacists rather than GPs for their repeat prescriptions, a survey shows.
The survey involved 2,004 people aged 15 years or over, who were interviewed
by MORI for the British Medical Association.
Responding to the statement “I would be happy to see a pharmacist
instead of the GP to repeat an existing prescription” 47 per cent
strongly agreed, 39 per cent tended to agree, 4 per cent neither agreed
nor disagreed, 7 per cent tended to disagree and 3 per cent strongly
disagreed. This is consistent with previous research carried out in 2002–03.
The survey also found that 88 per cent of people would be happy for nurses
to deal with minor complaints at night rather than seeing a GP. However,
the poll did not include a question about seeing a pharmacist rather
than a doctor about minor ailments.
The BMA says that this highlights the public acceptance of changes to
out-of-hours services which could arise through the new GP contract,
which was implemented this week.
Commenting about the involvement of pharmacists, a BMA spokesman said
that
the association’s General Practitioners Committee was keen to see
a greater skill mix in the day-to-day provision of health care. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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