Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) pharmacy board chair in England Thorrun Govind has today (July 8) written an open letter to the pharmacy profession calling on GPs and community pharmacists to work together for better patient care.

“Up and down the country, GPs and community pharmacists work together to support our patients. We know how valued pharmacists are by their GP colleagues, because we have seen the benefits, heard their feedback and witnessed the increasing number of posts for GP pharmacists,” she said.

However, “as a profession, we often face disparaging comments that ignore the important role we play in patients’ lives”.

Ms Govind uses the letter to outline some of the “huge benefits for collaboration between general practice and community pharmacy, not just for patient care”.

But she acknowledges that “primary care isn’t just community pharmacy and general practice”.

“We have a whole host of skilled professionals working together to help patients stay well. We know that patients need to feel fully supported and confident that they are getting the right care by the right person and at the right time,” she said.

Ms Govind has suggested the RPS host a roundtable with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and other relevant royal colleges, to help each primary care provider “understand each other’s perspectives, hear each other speak, and chart the best way forward to a post-COVID world”.

“When we work together the patient truly becomes our first concern,” she said.

Last week (July 4), Boots UK's chief executive Seb James apologised for suggesting during an interview that primary care workers had “disappeared” during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.