I am concerned but not at all surprised that pharmacists may be asked to treat certain acute illnesses (Pharmacies in England to offer prescriptions for seven conditions amid surgery crisis, 9 May). Primary medical care has morphed into general practice in two senses. First, members of the primary healthcare team are no longer necessarily medically qualified, but may be drawn from nursing, physiotherapy and other professions. Second, the primary function of GPs – diagnosing and treating mental and physical illness in the community – has been subsumed into a tsunami of additional tasks. Some have been imposed by government or academic diktat, others requested by an increasingly needy and demanding public.
I am pleased that the Guardian qualified one of the proposed conditions, urinary tract infections (UTI). Other media sources were less careful. Uncomplicated UTI in women is usually easy to manage, but not always easy to diagnose. Other conditions need to be considered, including sexually transmitted disease and interstitial (autoimmune) cystitis. Also, men and trans women require specifically tailored treatment. Good medical care is surprisingly complex and difficult to achieve. I fervently hope that my pharmacist colleagues are given the training and resources they will require.
Dr Peter Baddeley
Painswick, Gloucestershire
• Allowing pharmacies to provide more services – as has been the case on the continent for decades – is a good idea, but does not take into account the current shortage of pharmacists and pharmacies. The closure of one pharmacy in this area has resulted in unimaginable pressure being put on another, hitherto excellent, local business. Its staff are dealing with queues so long that on one occasion there was an hour’s wait to reach the desk.
To cope, this pharmacy stopped answering its phones. The absence of the sole staff member who knew how to order complex Parkinson’s medication but was on leave, combined with the lack of phone access, resulted in our having to organise medication to be couriered from Derby as an emergency. This cost us £200 – a sum that, to the credit of the company, has now been refunded in full, together with an apology. But, struggling already, how can this pharmacy, and others like it, realistically take on more?
Name and address supplied
• The idea of pharmacists assisting doctors is, like many politicians’ ideas, attractive only on the surface. Many pharmacies operate with only one pharmacist on duty, and while they are with a patient there is nobody to sign off prescriptions that have been dispensed by their assistants. This can result in long waits to collect their medicines.
If the policy is to work, it is essential to have two pharmacists per dispensary, and, certainly in my area, this seems unlikely to happen.
Martin Woodrow
Swansea
• Pharmacists have in the past opposed GPs opening pharmacies in their surgeries because they claimed that prescribing and dispensing should be separated. This is no longer the case, and so all GP surgeries should be allowed to have in-house pharmacies. A one-stop shop would be hugely convenient for patients, and could help fund practices, so partly restoring the cuts to GP income of the last 13 years.
Orest Mulka
Retired GP, Snarestone, Leicestershire
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