Community pharmacy needed to move away from narrow drug supply towards a linked up healthcare provision operating in a more flexible primary care system, Rob Darracott, chief executive of Pharmacy Voice said in the UCL School of Pharmacy’s new year lecture.

Primary Care

“Our current primary care system is, in part, based on unduly rigid rules about issues such as how long prescriptions should last for or who, say, can authorise the supply of prescription-only medicines,” Professor Darracott said in his January 13 lecture. “I want to see a system that works better as a whole, run by people who clearly know what they are doing and used by people who feel that they are in charge of their lives.”

Prof Darracott acknowledged the problems of weak or confused leadership within pharmacy but called for the profession to respond to the clearer direction of progress. “We must move on from ‘pilotitis’ to a new – locally flexible but commonly understood – universal model of primary care that is really fit for the 21st century.”

Can the top of the NHS work with us?

Prof Darracott issued a challenge to Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England: “Can the top of the NHS work with us? We need to work together, not just to fund the traditional – and still vital – pharmacy role of facilitating safe prescribing and providing recommended treatments but also allowing pharmacists who accept the need for change to provide more cost effective models of primary care.”

There was evidence that no other country had a comparable pharmacy service at a lower cost. But there was also evidence that medicines were not being used to optimum effect and pharmacists could correct misconceptions about the benefits and risks of medicines taking. “With enhanced near- patient risk and diagnostic testing, computer-based self-care and clinical decision-making support we can have a future where better pharmaceutical care in the community improves health outcomes.”