A massive petition against the government’s plans to cut pharmacy services was presented to the Prime Minister, as MPs debated the matter in parliament.
Yesterday marked the end of a Department of Health consultation on community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. The government proposes cuts to the pharmacy budget of £170 million in 2016/17 and a raft of other ‘efficiencies’. The Pharmacy Minister, Alastair Burt, has said that up to 3,000 pharmacies could close.
England’s 11,000 plus pharmacies are facing increased automation of medicines dispensing by a government intent on increasing financial savings. This is at odds with the public’s dependency on pharmacies for one to one healthcare advice and assistance. Instead of being targeted for savings, pharmacies are calling on the government to allow them to do more – to alleviate pressure on overcrowded GP surgeries and A&E departments.
Ian Strachan, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) Chairman, said, ‘It is now absolutely clear that the Department of Health has misjudged how people feel about local pharmacies. Patients value the face-to-face support they get at local pharmacies; getting medicines online or seeing a pharmacist by appointment in a GP surgery is not faintly equivalent to the accessible care available in pharmacies.
‘The government seems to think that putting a few hundred pharmacists into GP practices is a good swap for the loss of potentially 3,000 community pharmacies. I disagree. And so do at least a million and a half patients and concerned citizens. Any changes to the NHS should have the improvement of patient care as the top priority, not simply saving money.’
Source: www.npa.co.uk
