NHS 111 must make full use of pharmacists' minor ailments expertise and not refer patients to doctors unnecessarily, senior GPs have warned.

The pharmacy sector had an "enormous" role to play in treating patients referred through NHS 111, GP leaders told C+D this week, following news that only 3 per cent of calls to the helpline were being directed to pharmacy or dental services.

GP leaders want to see the number of NHS 111 calls referred to pharmacy increased substantially to alleviate the pressure on general practices	More on the NHS 111 service You can help fix pharmacy Meetings with DH fail to boost NHS 111 pharmacy referrals 'Frustrating' NHS 111 service fails to acknowledge pharmacy
	GP practices were "at bursting point" and lacked capacity to handle unnecessary NHS 111 referrals, they added. The comments came after an FOI request by C+D revealed last week that pharmacy leaders had met with the Department of Health seven times over 16 months to discuss working with NHS 111, but this had failed to boost referrals to the sector.

Although NHS 111 was fundamentally a good idea, it could fail if it didn't involve all local health providers, NHS Alliance chair and GP Mike Dixon told C+D. "You need contact between all the local providers – GP practices, pharmacies and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)," he argued.

"Certainly in terms of referrals to pharmacy, I think it has an enormous role and it's open quite a lot more than GP practices," Mr Dixon said, stressing that the system must refer callers appropriately.

And Tony Grewal, GP and one of the medical directors at Londonwide Local Medical Commitees (LMCs), said LMCs and CCGs were ensuring NHS 111 included pharmacy locally. But there had been "very variable" referral rates, he said, warning that GP practices would struggle to cope with large numbers of patients requesting appointments for minor ailments.

"General practice is at bursting point and anything [new] we do means that something else doesn't get done," Mr Grewal told C+D.

The BMA also called for NHS 111 to factor pharmacy into its algorithms appropriately. "The BMA has always encouraged patients to regard pharmacists as healthcare professionals they should consult early on in their illnesses," said Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA GP committee. "Self-care and pharmacist care are very important elements in healthcare delivery."