Pharmacists can prescribe in England from Wednesday 1st February.

Suedonim if having "free" presciptions offends you ,you could do what my friend does,he's newly returned from living abroad and thinks its not right to accept the free stuff so puts the prescription charge his sister pays in London, in the charity box."FREE" is obviously not free but paid for by us all ,it saves people who are on tight budgets choosing whether to buy food or their medication Means testing is degrading especially for the elderly .Did you also feel guilty at using "free" Uni tuition for your children? You do pay tax so surely you should be happy taxes are being used to benefit the population and not just those at the top of the tree.As a high rate tax payer I'm pleased its spent on things that matter

Not all pharmiststs are equal. Fortunately I have a really good pharmisist, who once advised me against taking benylin cough medicine with my usual medication because he said it would knock me out. A year later I was on holiday and forgot his advice. Once again I had a cough, so I called into Boots and asked the pharmacist if I could take benylin with my medication. They said yes. Within moments of taking it I fell into a heavy sleep. It certainly felt as though I had been knocked out. I felt terrible when I awoke. The sleep was so deep it scared me. I won't make that mistake again 😴😴😴

Gosh some people really don't like change, do they - even when it's an attempt to help the public get medicine earlier.

I remember asking my GP once if the new meds he had prescribed had any contraindications with other meds I was already taking. His response? "Ask the pharmacist, he'll be able to tell you that."

re the OP; today is wednesday 31 jan.
tomorrow is thursday 1 feb.
so don't go banging on their doors today . . .

ixion

Will they now be able to access my medical notesI?
If not, how is the advice given, prescription etc recorded?

They have access to the system using your NHS number. Vaccinations given at a pharmacy show up on your records quickly.

seems that they won't be able to prescribe for UTIs in over 65s.
nor for earache in over 18s.

but wouldn't that be the same procedure with GPs.
i mean the pt should be told if symptoms don't clear up after taking medication or within a specified time, to seek further medical advice.
it's often a process of elimination, starting with the most common or simplest to treat possibility.
if no improvement, then escalate to tests or stronger drugs.

Chemists do make mistakes which is why I always read my prescription and check the medication is the same. A local pharmacy where I used to live sadly actually killed someone by giving them the wrong tablets. They closed down afterwards.
Doctors diagnosed me with a bacterial eye infection for many years resulting in antibiotics and antibiotic eye ointment. I went to Bristol Eye hospital one Easter as Doctors were closed where they did a swab test and found out it was a viral infection. Now I get anti viral tablets and ointment and rarely get eye infections maybe one every 2 years compared to 4 or 5 a year. But I'm immune to amoxicillin as had so much of it.
I don't think chemists should be doing this as not able to diagnose. Bladder infections could be cancer or various other conditions and so can earache.

The obvious downside to this is that it places an extra burden on pharmacies, pharmacists and the counter staff. It's a thankless job a lot of the time and the responsibility will be on the individual pharmacies to recruit enough qualified staff to cope with the extra footfall. Perhaps a good question to ask is who's paying the wages for these staff.

In reply to the EXWIFE who thinks a UTI is not important, maybe if she had had one and ended up in hospital with a UTI that had spread to the kidneys and then caused sepsis, as I did, she might think differently.

A pharmacist recently told my neighbour to apply cream to a burn.

I thought it strange, but the gp was really cross when she had to see him about it, because it wasnt healing.

Ok for obviously minor ailments but take care as one pharmacist was quite willing to hand out a certain drug/prescription that actually would have worsened my long term condition.

Will they now be able to access my medical notesI?
If not, how is the advice given, prescription etc recorded?

Generally, I'd rather see anyone other than my gp.
I've found the nurses very helpful and more willing to listen.

My husband had what he thought was conjunctivitis.Isuggested he saw a pharmacist ( it was a Sunday).It turns out it was uveitis and he saw our GP the next day and was referred to the ophthalmology clinic as an emergency appointment.Some pharmacists are very good but I do worry that underlying conditions could be missed.

Blondie49

Parsley3 I am also in Scotland and my sister in law just got told they can now prescribe for over 60’s with uti ( she cd not get a docs app or prescription for at least a week !!! ) For minor stuff I go to pharmacist and mostly fine, been on go for a few years here.

Thank you, that must be new but welcome. I too have used the pharmacy for years.

Our local pharmacist diagnosed me with an ear infection a few weeks ago (it hurt having wax removed) he sent the pictures to my GP. So, I had a GP appointment, infection confirmed and antibiotic ear drops were prescribed. It would have been quicker and a spare GP appointment, if the pharmacist could’ve prescribed the drops.

Diagnosis is an important art of medical care. I presume the signs that pharmacists are allowed to diagnose are easier to diagnose conditions. Not all GPs are good at diagnosis, or prescribing either. The present state of the NHS requires that care is less than excellent.

Parsley3 I am also in Scotland and my sister in law just got told they can now prescribe for over 60’s with uti ( she cd not get a docs app or prescription for at least a week !!! ) For minor stuff I go to pharmacist and mostly fine, been on go for a few years here.

Those that are being negative about this service do not have to use it, you will still be able to see a doctor if you need or want to, it is a service that hopefully will free up doctors appointments for more serious issues.

There are areas of the country where a 3 week wait for a doctors appointment is the norm and people that do not want to clog up doctors appointments when a pharmacist can deal with their issues.

I’m sure I want to stand at Boots pharmacy counter and discuss my bladder infection - dreadful. And they shouldn’t prescribe antibiotics without a lab diagnosis - no point taking the wrong one - we are all getting immune as it is. I talk from experience

Jaxjacky

I order repeats through the NHS app SueDonim.

Me too! I ordered my repeat prescription on Monday and got a text this morning to say it’s ready to collect from the pharmacy.

We have a pharmacy at the GP surgery and it's very good. I can order repeat prescriptions via the NHS App and although it's always very busy I find it very efficient. Following my recent accident I'm taking some pretty heavy duty pain killers which can be addictive and I'm having to taper off the drugs slowly so I don't get withdrawal symptoms, I'm doing this by liaising with the pharmacist and tbh so far I've been very impressed. I don't know if my surgery is going to offer this service via the pharmacist, I think they will and I'd have no issue at all if they did.

The small pharmacy (Boots) next to my doctors is closing down. Always busy and now patients have to find another pharmacy.

Great if it works and pharmacists are willing and able to take on the extra duties.
In theory it should free up GPs but I have my doubts about the practical effect of that. I haven't seen a doctor face to face at my GP practice since 2018-2019, except for flu jabs.