British pharmacists will be allowed to prescribe medicines – Kommersant

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared today, 9 May, that his government intended to empower pharmacy pharmacists to prescribe basic medicines to clients with obvious and general illnesses. This, according to the Prime Minister, will help reduce waiting lists for general practitioners in public clinics that are part of the National Health System (NHS), and will contribute to the authorities’ promise to improve the situation in primary care.

Giving pharmacists the right to write prescriptions, in particular, means that people with complaints of sore throat or ear, inflammation of the urinary tract, etc., will be able to get the medicine directly from the pharmacy, without having to go to the general practitioner, as was the case before. . It also means that women will be able to purchase oral contraceptives directly from pharmacies. Another innovation will be allowing patients to sign up for some physiotherapy and other medical procedures themselves. The new rules will come into effect at the end of this year. The government is set to allocate £645m for this kind of change. According to government research, all this will free up 15m doctor visits over the next two years.

Problems related to making an appointment with an NHS doctor and long waiting times are, according to voters, one of the key ones in the country. The opposition has repeatedly criticized the authorities for their inability to radically solve these problems. The Conservatives lost more than 1,000 seats in local government last week in municipal elections. According to many experts, the problems of the NHS played one of the most important roles in this.

In January, the government promised to take action to reduce NHS waiting lists, and, as noted Financial Timessince then, Mr. Sunak has been under constant pressure from his own party and the opposition, whose representatives demand the speedy fulfillment of their promises.

The country was short of 4,200 full-time general practitioners in 2022, according to research group The Health Foundation. The organization predicts that without action, there will be a shortage of 9,000 qualified general practitioners by the end of the decade.

Andrey Kelekeyev