Wanless calls for evidence to back self-care agenda
Primary care providers should be encouraged to test whether, given access to more information, people want to have a greater input in managing their own health, according to Derek Wanless, a former chief executive of NatWest bank and health service adviser.
Writing in a new report
on self-care published by the Proprietary Association
of Great Britain, Mr Wanless says: “It seems highly likely that
many people with more information about their health, and their specific
disease risks, due to both genetic and lifestyle factors, will want to
manage their risks — but we should seek evidence to back this assumption.”
He comments that electronic patient records would be important for mapping
out local prevalence of disease and should allow better targeting of
disease management. “Providing access for pharmacists to aspects
of patient records might help,” he adds.
In the same report, David Colin-Thomé, national clinical director
for primary care, Department of Health, suggests that pharmacists are
key to the shift in thinking towards self-care. “I’m pleased
to note that [pharmacists] have taken up the challenges offered by self-care
with gusto, as the general thrust of the community pharmacy contract
has been met with good support.”
Ashok Soni, chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Association, writes: “Community
pharmacy’s contribution to the successful integration of self-care
can only be achieved when the wide range of UK self-care initiatives
become truly ‘joined up’. For example, one of the major obstacles
in the way of maximising the potential of community pharmacy to free
up capacity in the NHS comes from the fact that we are currently denied
routine access to medical records.” He comments that this can lead
pharmacists to err on the side of caution when recommending treatments
for conditions that might benefit from more radical solutions.
Self-care was the subject of a recent conference hosted by the Proprietary
Association of Great Britain.
Meetings, p695 |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader