Health services are likely to come under more pressure if the Government’s plans to cut funding for community pharmacy go ahead. This is according to new research conducted for the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

Based on a survey of 2,000 people, the research revealed that two in five people would go their GP if accessing their local pharmacy for the treatment of common conditions became more difficult and over a million people nationwide would go to A&E or other urgent care.

The research also found that two in three people use a pharmacy at least once a month; some 36 per cent of adults have received advice on how to get best use of their medicines in the past six months; and 28 per cent of the people surveyed said they had received confidential advice in a pharmacy consulting room.

Commenting on the survey results, Ian Strachan, NPA chairman, said: “The research confirms how much people really value the face-to-face advice they get at local pharmacies. It also shows that if you reduce people’s access to such advice, that simply puts extra pressure on GPs and hospitals, which are already stretched. The Department of Health says it wants efficiencies, yet its plans for pharmacy would build inefficiencies into the system.”
 
A campaign petition urging Government to abandon these plans has already gathered 200,000 signatures from concerned patients.