Turbo-charge community pharmacy to save A&E millions of hours, says NPA

Community pharmacies could save 6 million hours of accident and emergency (A&E) time if their role was ‘turbo charged’, research from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has found.

The NPA’s analysis of NHS England data into conditions treated in A&E in 2023/24 found that 325,000 people had visited A&E with a sore throat or a cold, costing the NHS £44m that year alone. A further 18,000 patients attended A&E with infected insect bites and 196,000 attended with urinary tract infections.

The NPA says that £215m is wasted a year treating patients in A&E that have the potential to be safely and quickly dealt with by their local pharmacist and argue: ‘This saving could be higher if the clinical role of pharmacies was expanded by the NHS.’

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Since the launch of Pharmacy First on 31 January 2024, patients with minor illnesses such as sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) can be treated in community pharmacies under the initiative.

The NPA is calling on the government to include additional conditions, such as constipation, diarrhoea and certain bacterial skin infections, to bring it into line with the service in Scotland.

Henry Gregg, chief executive of the NPA said: ‘Of course people with serious injuries should go to A&E but it should be a place for emergencies not the first place to go when faced with a minor ailment.

‘Our analysis clearly shows a substantial number of visits to A&E could be better managed in a local pharmacy.’

The NPA is urging the government to use the imminent publication of the NHS 10 Year Plan to ‘turbo charge’ the role of community pharmacy to free up time that is currently being spent in other parts of the health system.

It said: ‘Freeing up time in A&E could help the government hit its 4-hour wait target and help those who are acutely unwell receive potentially life-saving treatment more quickly.’

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It has also called for improved signposting from the NHS 111 service to direct more patients with minor ailments to their pharmacy or GP, not a hospital.

Responding to the NPA’s analysis, Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) said: ‘The findings in this report clearly indicate that there is huge potential for community pharmacies to help patients and the NHS to address issues of access to care.’

He added: ‘Pharmacy First has been hugely successful, with over 3.5 million people receiving NHS urgent care treatment in a pharmacy since the service launched last year. The increase in demand seen in December, particularly over the Christmas period, shows how pharmacy is alleviating winter pressures and helping tackle access challenges across the NHS.’

Responding to the analysis, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, Daniel Elkeles said: 'Patients often resort to A&E when they can’t access timely healthcare elsewhere, piling pressure on already overstretched services.

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'Minor ailments can and should be managed through more appropriate services including Pharmacy First, which enables patients to get prescription medications - including antibiotics - for certain common conditions directly from a pharmacist, and NHS 111 online.

'This could lighten the load on emergency departments, whose priority is always to deliver urgent care to the most seriously ill patients.'