EXCLUSIVE

More than half of pharmacists have been discouraged from offering services by GPs, a C+D poll has suggested.

Fifty-two per cent of 75 respondents to a C+D poll, run in collaboration with Avicenna on the C+D website May 12-15, said their attempts to offer services such as flu vaccinations had been hindered by local GPs.

PSNC director of NHS services Alastair Buxton said GPs’ resistance to pharmacy services had been a “significant obstacle to service development in some areas” and the negotiator had “repeatedly raised” this issue with the NHS.

“PSNC believes that to truly integrate services across the professions we will need to align the GP and pharmacy contractual frameworks. We continue to work towards this with NHS England,” he told C+D.  

In the meantime, Mr Buxton suggested that pharmacy teams build relationships with GPs by discussing repeat dispensing and the services their pharmacy currently provides.

Numark raised concerns earlier this month that GPs were trying to restrict the delivery of flu vaccines in pharmacies, and Pharmacy Voice representative Gareth Jones said community pharmacists should overcome opposition to their services by continuing their “impressive work”.

“It is important that we highlight evidence of the increase in [flu vaccine] uptake that community pharmacy has helped to provide, especially in hard-to-reach groups,” he added.

GP: "Few legitimate reasons" for discouragement

NHS Alliance chair and GP Michael Dixon told C+D there were “few legitimate demographic or geographic reasons why GPs may discourage specific services from being offered in a community pharmacy setting”.
 
The "needs of the patient must come first", said Dr Dixon, who stressed that the “chronic shortage of GPs” meant pharmacy teams were “perfectly placed to care for patients suffering from long-term conditions and common ailments”.

Al Patel, owner of Lee Pharmacy in Lewisham, said he thought relationships between the two professions would improve as they learned how to assist each other.

“There are certain things we do and GPs do - for example, health checks. We’re actually assisting them because they haven’t got the manpower or the time to be doing such services,” Mr Patel added.

Has a GP tried to discourage your pharmacy from providing a service?

We want to hear your views, but please express them in the spirit of a constructive, professional debate. For more information about what this means, please click here to see our community principles and information