Posts tagged "switch"

The 2004 “Choosing health through pharmacy” programme envisages that by 2015, pharmacy will be our first stop for health matters. Pharmacists will be qualified to identify disease risk factors, suggest the appropriate treatment steps and refer practitioners when necessary.Going hand in hand with this is the increasing switch of prescription-only-medicines (POMs) to P status - medicines that can be provided by a pharmacist without the need for a doctor’s script. This is good for the drugs bill and so far, good for patients - with a pretty clean slate for switches so far in terms of safety.

Mixed reactions come from pharmacy itself, however. On paper the industry are largely positive but seem reluctant to practice on real life customers. This is not the proactive response that government and industry had hoped for.

Some believe it is too much, too soon, to expect pharmacists to accomplish a GP consulting approach. The first and biggest hurdle may be acceptance. To quote a pharmacist I recently spoke to: “If I had wanted to be a GP I would have become one”.

But the cost of switches must be recouped. So are we doing something wrong? Pharmacists know that switch products have met stringent risk-benefit criteria - I believe so. They value the training on offer - yes. Should we be more aggressive - less trusting of their professional instincts, less patient?

I don’t think a macho upbringing makes strong people. So we need to think hard about support. While the NHS is the main driver of change, we cannot expect that our responsibilities end with branded training. Instead, we’re going to need to co-create opportunities with government and pharmacy to build the secure, confident community practitioners of the future. Watch this space.