Pharmacists should direct patients to local activity groups as a way to improve their physical and mental health, a Suffolk councillor has said.

This "social prescribing" can enable patients to become “agents of their own health”, said Conservative councillor Robin Millar, the co-author of a report on tackling health inequalities in Manchester                                 

Public health is currently “very service-dominated” and commissioners need to “reframe our thinking”, Mr Millar told C+D at the Conservative party conference in Manchester on Tuesday (October 16).

“[If someone is] taking tablets to help them sleep, is it for depression and loneliness? [This] could be helped by joining a choir or a football team,” he suggested.

Pharmacists have an "important and undervalued role in dealing with patient health”, Mr Millar stressed. He highlighted a local walking group started by pharmacists in south Manchester as "powerful stuff" that helps to “lift people’s mood”.

The government should consider legislation to "align public services so they don’t cut across our own desires to be involved in our healthcare", he added.

In his report – commissioned by the Oglesby Charitable Trust and published in July – Mr Millar said it is important that people's existing relationships with pharmacies, GPs and neighbourhood groups “reinforce the expectation" that they are in control of their own health and “not just consumers of health services”.

How do you signpost patients to community activity groups?

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