New research has uncovered the way that community pharmacists and GPs really feel about one another.

The relationship between the two professions have historically been strained, with both seeing the other as competition for providing local primary care services.

Cogora’s sixth Primary Concerns report, which this year takes the title of The State of Primary Care 2018, delves deeper into the way pharmacists and GPs view each other.

At the end of 2018, when the survey was conducted, 40% of 916 GPs said they viewed pharmacists as competition as providers of locally commissioned services, whereas this figure was 35% of 195 pharmacists.

However, viewing pharmacists as competition did not negatively impact how useful GPs considered them. Almost eight in 10 (78%) GPs said they believed pharmacists could help to lessen their workloads.

And despite the historic tensions between the two professions, their relationship appears to be positive on the whole. Almost three-quarters (73%) of pharmacists rated relationships with their local GP practices as good or very good, and nearly two-thirds (63%) of GPs gave the same ratings

The survey also revealed that just under a third (31%) of community pharmacists are considering packing up and moving into GP practices, according to a major new survey of primary care workers.

The 52 contractors and superintendent pharmacists surveyed were far less likely to make the move, with just 15% saying they would consider it. This was in contrast to the 143 employee pharmacists surveyed, 36% of whom saying they would potentially move into working in GP practices.