Three Scottish pharmacy organisations have joined forces for the first time, to urge the government to highlight the "significant role" the sector can play in out-of-hours care. 

Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for Scotland and NHS Scotland's senior pharmacy leaders used a joint submission to a government review on out-of-hours care to call for the development of three national patient group directives (PGDs) to make better use of the profession.

The proposed PGDs for shingles, impetigo and urinary tract infections would increase pharmacists' involvement in the management of common minor illnesses, the organisations said.

The pharmacy organisations agree that the current pharmacy network could be "built on to further enhance its role", CPS chief executive Harry McQuillan said last week (August 20). "I would encourage the [government] review to recommend pharmacy's role be significantly strengthened within the primary care team," he added.

The organisations repeated CPS's aim for the country's national minor ailments scheme to become a "universal service" that covers the whole population. Currently this service is only available to certain key groups or those with a valid exemption.  

Records access

The Scottish government should follow England's example and ensure all pharmacies have access to patients' emergency summary care record, the organisations said. They also called for pharmacies' IT systems to be integrated with GP surgeries, allowing "information about patient care to be pushed and pulled between GPs and community pharmacies". 

The government should "further explore" utilising the skills of prescribing pharmacists to manage chronic disease, address medication-related issues and help create care plans to treat patients before their condition worsens. Pharmacist prescribers cannot electronically print prescriptions from GP's IT systems and this function needs to be "enabled urgently", the organisations stressed.

Scotland's Pharmore+ walk-in service pilot had already shown the benefits of allowing pharmacists with "additional clinical skills in the management of minor illness" to provide enhanced services in pharmacies and other locations, the organisations said. 

They described these recommendations as "short-to-medium-term solutions". In the long term, there is an "urgent requirement" to secure funding to train pharmacy technicians and support staff across the country, they added.

The government's national primary care out-of-hours review is due to report its findings in October.

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