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Letters to the Editor
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National Health Service
Crumbling care for the community
From Mrs A. Morant, MRPharmS
Care for the community has been on a downward spiral since the removal
of the essential pharmacy allowance. Consequently, I consider that David
Kent, in his letter entitled “Independent
pharmacy is heading towards a bleak future” (PJ, 30 September, p391), is understating
the case in blaming the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
Unfortunately, there is no joined-up thinking within the NHS, nor is there
any understanding of the essential role played by community pharmacies
across the country. Lip service has been paid to us, but nothing else.
The decreasing number of independent pharmacies is just one of the symptoms
of a greater malaise.
Putting aside our partisan interests for just a moment, it is no secret
that the local (I repeat, local) pharmacy is the first port of call for
most people when they are feeling unwell. As we all know, although most
episodes will be minor, there will be some that, if the patient is not
referred rapidly to a GP, could become serious. This, if one refers to
any of the myriad of expensive consultancy discussion documents circulating
within the higher echelons of the NHS, is now more formally known as triage.
As local pharmacies cease to be viable as a result of the new payment schedule,
and the multiples favour a smaller number of larger shops in major shopping
centres, a vital resource for the elderly and the infirm will wither away.
Thus, the opportunity to identify and deal with early symptoms will disappear
with the result that there will be a greater burden on GPs and on already
overloaded accident and emergency departments.
This particularly concerns me as I retire at the end of this year from
what has been, in the past, a satisfying career as a locum community pharmacist.
When I emerge from behind the counter I will join the growing mass of the
elderly who are facing a future where access to health care is becoming
more difficult despite the increasing amount of money being poured into
the NHS.
Annette Morant
Edgware,
Middlesex |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal