Pharmacists can prescribe in England from Wednesday 1st February.

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

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."

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 😴😴😴

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

I feel sorry for the poor pharmacists.
They already have an overload of work.

COVID vaccinations, flu vaccinations, blood pressure checks etc.

My local pharmacy attached to doctors surgery is always super busy. Lots of waiting for prescriptions to be dispensed.
They seem to be permanently rushed of their feet.

Goodness knows how the service will cope now.
And I wonder what pharmacies themselves think about the extra work entailed.

Greciangirl as it’s been said above, it’s not an obligation to provide the service, but a choice by each pharmacy.

I've had similar experiences unfortunately @Littleannie so I'm with you about not trusting it. I've been to a pharmacist with an insect bite, it was very red, swollen and travelling down my leg, they gave me bite cream but I ended up at a walk-in centre I'd got cellulitis from it and needed antibiotics. Also a pharmacist told me I'd got ringworm, I saw my GP I actually had a condition called pityriasis rosea. It's made me wary.

Crikey …I haven’t been to doctor to test for UTI for 10 years….my husband was getting 6 a year and all I did was but the test strips on line and sample bottles ….test his urine ( doctor told me when and how ) and just ring surgery for prescription ..,sometimes doctor would ask me to drop sample off at surgery for second opinion …his!

In principle I'd rather be treated by a pharmacist ( who will have had a minimum 5 years' training )than a Doctor's/Medical assistant?
Sounds as if the Pharmacists will be doing diagnosis as well as treatment.? Re UTIs perhaps after seeing the Pharmacist a forward appointment( to take some pressure out of the system) for the GP to lab-test the urine for the disappearance of the infection; a GP emergency appointment remains available if anything worrying happens in the interim. Just my thoughts ;I'm no expert.

The nearest pharmacy to us is close to the Doctors but the continually seemed to have problems with my prescription or couldn’t find it. It happened to be a small Boots. When it was taken over by an American company I decided to move. I happened to ask my GP which local pharmacy she recommended. She suggested one a bit further away and explained the surgery used it for all their supplies. They are an independent and the pharmacist is friendly and efficient. Since being there we’ve had our Covid jabs and he has advised on one or two other things.

Europeans and Turks use their pharmacies far more frequently. As a child I burn my arm on a camping gas light. Dad to me to the pharmacy, they sold him the medicated greasy gauze to use along with appropriate dressing. I’ve had antibiotics at least once whilst on holiday in Turkey.

I’ve been very pleased with my pharmacy treatments and I’m glad they will be given more responsibility. I think it will be a question of finding a pharmacy/pharmacist one can trust a making the most of additional services offered.

However, it’s no substitute for an efficient and easy to access health service.

It takes a week for my pharmacy to get my prescription ready. Will this cause them to take even longer? Or will all the people with UTIs etc. be made to join the queue?

We have three independent pharmacies within walking distance.

I use the NHS App to order my repeat prescription and it is available for collection (they say allow 5 working days) usually within 2 -3 working days, at the pharmacy I have chosen to use.

All have a separate room where inoculations are given, I have great confidence in two of the regular pharmacists, probably wouldn’t use the third one for advice.

UTI treatment only for women aged 16 - 64.

I worked as a Drs receptionist for many years, 4 GPS at a country practice, each had at least 20 patients each morning and 6 or so after 11 before rounds which took up to around 2,30 for it all to start again for afternoon/evening surgery. Whilst it’s a good idea if a Pharmacist can help with minor ailments it really isn’t their job to diagnose thus waiting again to see a GP. I attend said surgery myself now, huge waiting room with hardly any patients in it, I only go to collect a Rx I self medicate if I need anything. It’s always been such a great service, it’s all gone horribly wrong. Good Luck to the overworked Pharmacy

Personally, I think it’s a really good idea. I also think people without a really good reason for not turning up at their GP after booking an appointment should be charged. We recently sat in our doctor surgery and saw three names called out who just hadn’t showed up. It’s depriving somebody else of an appointment.

I thin the scheme is a goofy ideal for minor matters and l have often sought the advice of a pharmacist for what I think are fairly trivial things. They are nearly always able to point me in the right direction and, if something is beyond their remit, will advise being seen by a gp or practice nurse. The one area that bothers me is earache. Most ear infections are, indeed, minor and soon clear up, but I have had terrible problems with my ears all my life, including two mastoidectomies - extremely major and urgent ear surgery. Occasionally, ears can progress like mine did and it is not always obvious when this will happen.

Good, not goofy. Where on earth did that one come from?

welbeck

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

The problem for me is that my first mastoidectomy was when I was ten. It was and is a serious and urgent problem because if lef untreated can spread to the brain and cause a life-threatening abscess. If this minor ailments with a pharmacist had been a thing in 1975, l could easily have died. Most ailments are, indeed, trivial, but a seemingly minor condition can mask something far more serious.

Pharmacists train for much longer than GPs

What!
Complete rubbish!
I’ve just looked it up. To become a pharmacist in the UK a person trains for five years.
My daughter is a GP.
She trained for twelve years!

maggic

UTI treatment only for women aged 16 - 64.

That's very disappointing (I'll be 65 in a couple of months), but I think it's because UTIs in older women can lead to complications.

Pharmacists have been prescribing in Scotland for a number of years now and it surprises me no end how some folks are unaware of this

Minor ailments only they will advise if you need to see a gp.

AGAA4

The pharmacy here will not give treatment for a UTI unless they do a test themselves which seems sensible to me.
I think it is a good idea that minor illnesses can be treated at the pharmacy.

They should be able to administer a dip stick to see if there is any obvious infection but I hope they can send the specimen off for analysis. That tells whether you are on the correct medication.

Our pharmacy at Boots is under great pressure most of the time. The queues will get even longer.

As an aside I had to wait for the pharmacy to open after the lunch break, which is fair enough, however the pharmacist and his assistant were standing at the front of the building smoking 😳 I know it is a free world but it hardly gave a good impression.

maddyone

^Pharmacists train for much longer than GPs^

What!
Complete rubbish!
I’ve just looked it up. To become a pharmacist in the UK a person trains for five years.
My daughter is a GP.
She trained for twelve years!

Seems I missed out a part of that sentence. The total length of training is not longer but the time spent on the details of medications is.