Minor ailments cost NHS £2bn/yr
Treating minor ailments accounts for a fifth of GPs’ workload and costs the NHS around £2bn a year, a study
of data from 500,000 patients suggests. The research — commissioned by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain — also reveals that, in the UK, around 51 million consultations a year are solely for minor ailments.
If these consultations could be handled by a pharmacist, at least an
hour a day could be released for every GP to see patients with more complex
needs, the PAGB and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee
suggest in a joint submission to the consultation on the White Paper
on pharmaceutical services.
The two organisations propose a national minor ailments scheme for England
where pharmacy is the first port of call for all cases of minor ailments.
In such a scheme, responsible self-care and self-medication would be
supported and encouraged and there would be supply of treatments on the
NHS for people who are exempt from the prescription charge. This would
include over-the-counter medicines and a mechanism to allow prescription-only
medicines to be supplied as necessary.
The programme would need to be supported by national, regional and local
communications, the PAGB and the PSNC stress. They also propose that
mechanisms to recruit people into a national minor ailments scheme would
include the use of a “self-care prescription” by GPs. These “prescriptions” would
endorse current practices and encourage patients to go to the pharmacy
in the first instance for future minor ailments.
News feature p111
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