September 22 2014

The body representing pharmacy owners is joining with other health professions to lobby at the party political conferences.

Pharmacy Voice says it has joined with the British Dental Association, National Community Hearing Association, and the Optical Confederation to make politicians recognise that the NHS is much more than GPs and hospitals.

The coalition represents 100,000 healthcare professionals working in over 30,000 community premises.

“Every day millions of people visit dentists, opticians, audiologists and pharmacies for treatment and advice on how to keep healthy. Utilising the skills, workforce and accessible locations of these community health professionals effectively holds the key to transforming primary care and public health outcomes in the UK,” says Pharmacy Voice.

Rob Darracott, Pharmacy Voice’s Chief Executive, added: “An ageing population, increasing levels of obesity and an associated increase in diabetes are creating huge pressures on NHS services against a background of huge funding gaps.

“The whole primary care team can assist in managing the increased demand felt by general practice and the acute care sector. Common ailments, including coughs and colds account for 51.4 million GP consultations annually, equate to nearly a fifth of a GP’s total workload, and the vast majority of these could be effectively treated in community pharmacy.

“The commonest form of treatment in the NHS is medicines, but we are not maximising the value of interventions designed to support the 50% of patients who don’t take those medicines to better effect. We need to find better ways of joining up the system at a local and national level to deliver better care for patients and tackle health inequalities.“

Link:

Pharmacy Voice

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