Pharmacists could become "holistic practitioners" under the NHS reforms as they reduce the amount of prescriptions they dispense, NHS Alliance chair and GP Mike Dixon has said.

Dispensing "as many prescriptions as possible" was "not productive for the population or their health", Dr Dixon told C+D.

And CCGs could supplement the loss of income pharmacists would suffer from reduced prescriptions, by creating "mutual incentives" between pharmacists and general practice to ensure drugs were used "more cost-effectively" and only "where they're absolutely necessary", he suggested.

"We're talking about pharmacists almost becoming holistic practitioners, which I think will be a vastly more interesting role" Mike Dixon, NHS Alliance

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"I know that is pretty counter intuitive in the current system, because [pharmacists] clearly depend upon prescriptions, but we have to come to a system where pharmacists get paid the same... but [are] no longer having to drive out as many prescriptions as possible," Dr Dixon said at the NHS Alliance conference in Bournemouth on November 21. Pharmacists should offer patients health and nutritional advice as well as provide more information on over-the-counter medicines, he added.

"We're talking about pharmacists almost becoming holistic practitioners, which I think will be a vastly more interesting role than the one the current system gives them," he added.

Dr Dixon's comments came as figures released by the NHS Information Centre on November 22 revealed the number of prescription items dispensed by community pharmacists in England had increased by 56 per cent in 10 years.

Pharmacists dispensed 885 million prescription items between 2011-12, compared to 566 million items in 2002-3 and the number of dispensing fees received by pharmacists increased by 57 per cent during the second period, according to the NHS report.