Pharmacists and GPs have hit out at the NHS 111 service this week for undermining the government's drive to cut accident and emergency admissions by failing to make full use of primary care.

Pharmacy Voice and the BMA's GP committee argued that the non-emergency NHS helpline was failing to relieve pressure on already overstretched emergency care services, in response to a speech by Jeremy Hunt to the King's Fund today (May 23), where he is expected to argue that difficulties accessing GP services had forced patients to turn to A&E.

The comments come three weeks after NHS England admitted that the performance of NHS 111 was still unacceptable in some areas and pledged to conduct an external review of the service.

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	The NHS could do "a lot more" to signpost patients to pharmacy services, Pharmacy Voice said. More than half of local NHS 111 operators are yet to engage with LPCs, according to responses to a Pharmacy Voice survey, conducted across 80 per cent of the helpline's localities between February and April this year.

"NHS 111 is significantly under-referring to self-care and community pharmacy support," argued Pharmacy Voice chief executive Rob Darracott.

"There is a lack of ‘pharmacy endpoints' in the algorithms used by NHS 111 call handlers," he explained. "This means that calls that would have been referred to community pharmacy by NHS Direct under the old system may now be referred unnecessarily to GPs, out-of-hours services or emergency care."

The BMA's GP committee said the problems facing emergency care were "complex", but also branded the NHS 111 service a hindrance. "The botched introduction of NHS 111 has created additional problems for already overstretched services," said committee chair Laurence Buckman.

"The BMA believes that much can be done to better integrate GP services with out-of-hours care, NHS 111 and emergency hospital services," he added.

National data suggests that emergency admissions have increased at an annual rate of 2 per cent since the helpline was introduced. Only 3 per cent of callers were referred to pharmacy or dental services in the latest figures for March.

Emergency care was debated at a health select committee hearing earlier this week (May 21). Pharmacy Voice told the committee that a national minor ailments service and recognition of pharmacy's expertise could help ease the burden on hospitals.