Independent proprietor Sid Dajani vents his frustration at politicians and repeated NHS mistakes ...

So, here I am, late at night with a glass of Penderyn, having a Russell Brand moment. Why bother to vote? As a father, as a taxpayer, as a landlord, as a pharmacist, as a future user of the NHS, no single party ticked any of the boxes.

One thing I was sure of though was how poor the Tory manifesto was. And where was the architect of the NHS reforms? Lansley seemed to be airbrushed away faster then any actresses modelling photos! The NHS needs to save billions from waste and yet it wasted billions on reforms that don't work, diverted monies away from the front line to cover the increased costs of bureaucracy, and commissioning is worse than it’s ever been.

What worries me is when David Cameron said five years ago almost to the day that there would be no top down reorganisation, did he lie to us or did Lansley lie to him? Who lied to whom? And when the mess developed into a catastrophe, why continue with them? And how did these reforms get carried through when every coalface healthcare professional shouted ‘foul’ right from the beginning?

So, here we are again. Groundhog day? Been here before and got the t-shirt.

Getting the wrong answer

How did the pollsters get it so wrong? I can only surmise. When you tell a pollster what you are going to do, you can lie, tell the truth, say you don't know, or give an answer that makes you feel or look good. Pollsters know all that and 'adjust for it'. They throw in what they know about you, some history and clever guesswork... the machine whirrs and spits out the answer ... the wrong answer!

Exit pollsters who ask what you just did are more likely to get nearer the truth, because less adjustment is needed. Managers know that measuring inputs is a mugs’ game. Measuring outcomes is 'proper'. And that’s why the NHS will always play off a sticky wicket, because if it measured outcomes then pharmacy would be at the centre of its beating heart.

We would have nationally commissioned common ailment schemes, flu vaccinations for all over 65s and under 16s, NHS Health Checks would be available from all good pharmacies near you, there would be loads of investment in prevention and public health as we try to keep people out of A&E and surgeries. Access and faster routes to treatment could be solved with the simple stroke of a pen if only the NHS seamlessly stitched pharmacists alongside other healthcare professionals in its strategy and treated us as equal priorities. But the NHS isn't interested in outcomes. It’s interested in input and that excludes pharmacy and that’s why it will never get it right.

Show me the money

For example, if I had a penny for every time I’ve said, “we don’t have enough nurses”, well ... I'd have a lot of pennies. If I had a pound for every time I've written, “use community pharmacy cleverly, fund it properly and involve us in local strategy” ... I'd be able to buy a pound shop.

Use community pharmacy cleverly, fund it properly and involve us in local strategy

Sadly, the only time both Labour and the Conservatives agreed on anything was when they said we needed at least 20,000 more GPs. No we don’t! It would take the best part of a decade to train them and then it would cost over a hundred thousand pounds to pay each and every one. We have the resources now, demand is rising exponentially and patients can't wait ten years. These people aren’t fit to run a village fete, let alone the UK.

Many deemed the Tory government better for the economy and a far less worse choice than the other parties. However, for me as a jobbing pharmacist, more of the same for another five years is roundly and soundly depressing.

To compound matters, the very next day I went into my pharmacy and during a very busy few hours I had to 'entertain' someone for twenty minutes while I had several other patients waiting to see me about the pros and cons of using echinacea for cold relief, and whether you should be using Bach flower remedies instead because the garden fence nextdoor said so. On the same day, I had another cheeky patient run in five minutes before closing, waving a prescription around with seven items on it and asking us to dispense it doubly quick because a favourite programme was about to start.

Smiling on the radio

Smiling politely always works, because no one really knows what you're thinking, but I had a chance to vent my feelings when I was asked to go to the BBC studios and give 16 live regional radio interviews about the ‘secret’ scheme that had been reported in the Daily Mail. This was a story that went viral when a woman went to a pharmacy in Scotland and was told about the common ailment scheme and how people could get free Calpol and plasters.

I righted those wrongs and explained that accessing free medicines for common ailments to those eligible for free prescriptions through pharmacies and without a prescription would save the NHS over a billion pounds a year because it's five times more expensive to go to A&E and three times more to go to a GP. With over 18 million GP visits that could be dealt with in pharmacy and 650,000 A&E visits, it would also reduce waiting times and people won’t have to leave work or wait until Monday to seek help.

I also said that this was a locally commissioned service and that's why some areas had them and others didn't. A friend from Oxford called me and said his local radio station is starting a campaign! If the politicians won't listen, I'm glad patients do, because if this catches on the politicians will have to listen, not to the patients we serve but the same voters who elected them!