Pharmacy First should be expanded to include free over the counter (OTC) medications for people on low incomes in order to really ease demand for GP appointments, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison has suggested.

She told a parliamentary inquiry this week that the cost of prescriptions was driving demand for GP appointments.

And she suggested that a national minor ailments scheme could supply OTC medications to people on low incomes free of charge from a pharmacy, as originally proposed by the negotiator.

When asked by the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) how she would like to see Pharmacy First expanded, Ms Morrison said that CPE had included in its original business case for the service the element of making OTC medications available free for people on low incomes.

‘One of the drivers for people to get a GP appointment is because they can't afford the prescription,’ Ms Morrison said.

She added that in some areas, including in North East London, such a scheme was being locally commissioned.

‘I think that might be an addition to the service if we're genuine about wanting to take the pressure off GP appointments,’ she told the committee.

In May, Shilpa Shah, chief executive of Community Pharmacy North East London, told The Pharmacist the area had seen an increase in patients saying they could not afford to purchase the OTC medicines that they were recommended.

Instead, they were being sent ‘around the system’ to get a prescription from the GP for the items that could be redeemed at a community pharmacy.

The cost of living is also affecting access to prescription medications in England, pharmacists have reported.

A recent survey of 1,357 pharmacists in England found that 97% had encountered patients foregoing some of the medicines on a prescription due to cost, and as many as 90% reported cases where patients declined all the medicines.

The survey, jointly commissioned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA), also found that more than a third (35%) of respondents had seen an increase in patients declining prescriptions over the last year.

Pharmacists in England have long called for prescription charges to be scrapped, with one recently telling MPs it was a ‘prescription tax’ that pharmacists were not paid to collect.

Following a consultation last year, the government committed to keeping prescriptions free for over-60s.

But pharmacy groups called for the charge to be abolished completely for patients in England.