People with low incomes or who are socially vulnerable in north east London can receive free over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, a spokesperson for the NHS North East London (NHS NEL) integrated care board (ICB) exclusively revealed to C+D this week (July 9).
The ICB launched its new community pharmacy self-care advice service at the start of this month to “reduce the health inequities experienced by [its] most vulnerable residents”, many of whom face “high cost of living pressures”, they said.
The service covers 24 common minor illnesses as “an extension of the national Pharmacy First service”, they added.
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Community pharmacies in the ICB can provide “clinical advice” to qualifying patients “to help them self-manage their minor ailments”, the spokesperson told C+D.
The new locally commissioned service will also see pharmacies provide “support for general health and wellbeing” by referring patients to “other services” such as smoking cessation programmes, they revealed.
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Community Pharmacy North East London (CP NEL) chief executive Shilpa Shah told C+D that the service will be “so beneficial for residents across north east London” and will give GPs “more confidence” to refer low income patients to community pharmacies.
The service will make it “less likely that the patient will refer back to [GPs] for a prescription because they cannot afford their medication”, Shah said.
Two years in the making
Shah told C+D that the conversation about developing the service began two years ago during a visit with NHS NEL’s chief medical officer Dr Paul Gilluley.
After “a lot of work in the background” from the ICB and local pharmaceutical committee (LPC), the service is now in place “and we’re really really happy”, she said.
“We hope that other ICBs see the benefit and follow suit, and hopefully this will become a national service at some point,” Shah added.
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The service could provide “up to 157,000 consultations” over its two years of “initial” funding, a spokesperson for the ICB told C+D.
All 373 pharmacies in north east London can sign up to deliver the service if they meet its specifications and their details will be shared with local GPs and other organisations for referral, they added.
Help for the vulnerable
An ICB spokesperson told C+D that the service’s eligibility criteria “are different from standard prescription exemption categories”.
All qualifying people should be on a low income and should either be registered with a local GP practice or be “homeless, an asylum seeker, or a refugee based in north east London”, they told C+D.
While local residents on low incomes will need a Pharmacy First referral by their GP practice, the service will accept walk-ins from people who are homeless, asylum seekers, or refugees, they said.
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Shah described the new service as offering a “holistic approach” that could see people receive other community pharmacy services or be signposted to other local services.
The ICB spokesperson told C+D that the service was “a priority for [its] population” as the area faces “significant health disparities”.
Shah said that the service will help people who “find it difficult to navigate a system”, making community pharmacy an even more “welcoming space”.
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“This will be a really easy way for them to walk in on a Saturday, on a Sunday [or] late at night and to get treatment for the conditions that they may need,” she added.
Shah told C+D that CP NEL is “building relationships” with homeless shelters in north east London, offering them posters to encourage people to walk into a pharmacy to receive help.
Free the OTC
In May, the health and social care committee (HSCC) recommended that the national government should fund community pharmacies to provide free OTC medicines to people on low incomes in its pharmacy inquiry report.
The committee said at the time that patients in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis are often reluctant to pay for medication at their pharmacy, preferring to use GP services for minor ailments.
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But it added that offering people on lower incomes free OTCs as part of the Pharmacy First service could push people to choose pharmacies over booking GP appointments.
In 2020, then-health minister Lord Bethell announced that there had been a “reduction in spend of £32m” on OTC items since NHS guidance advised GPs to “curb prescribing” of them for certain conditions including headlice, earwax and mouth ulcers in March 2018.
