Millions of GP appointments could be released nationwide if a new collaborative model of care utilising community pharmacy was rolled out nation wide, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said.

This comes after Basegreen Pharmacy and Jaunty Springs Medical Practice in Sheffield worked together to free up appointments by conducting medication reviews in the pharmacy and providing other dedicated support to the practice.

A new report on this scheme shows that if every pharmacy in England were to provide one day a week of such support it could free up 18 million GP appointments a year. The report also supports the NPA’s long-held view that pharmacy should be the main point of medicines care for patients with long term conditions, not the surgery.

Commenting on the report’s findings, NPA chair Nitin Sodha, said: “It is time for NHS England to review this alternative model in more detail and ensure funding is allocated from the Pharmacy Integration Programme to support the fuller deployment of the community pharmacy network.”