Rishi Sunak revealed today that he was inspired to expand the role of pharmacies after watching his mother form a “powerful bond” with patients at the family store.
The Prime Minister, who worked in his mother’s pharmacy in Southampton as a boy, today unveiled plans to enable pharmacists to write prescriptions for a range of common ailments.
The plans, designed to put pressure on GP appointments, are backed with funding of £645 million.
Speaking to the Daily Mail today, Mr Sunak revealed that his own experience as someone with a pharmacist mother and GP father had convinced him the scheme could work.
He said the issue was “personal to me,” adding: “My father was a general practitioner, my mother was a pharmacist. I grew up working for my mother – I worked in her pharmacy for years. And so I saw firsthand how powerful the bond she had with her patients, how much they trusted, but more generally how much people trusted their local pharmacist.
“So it’s really personal to me, which is why what we’re announcing today empowers patients so they can get more services from pharmacists, but it’s also a huge vote of confidence in our community pharmacies.”
The Prime Minister took a trip down memory lane today and returned to the pharmacy run by his mother Usha until 2014, where he helped measure and deliver medicines as a boy. It is now known as Bassett Pharmacy
Rishi Sunak revealed he was inspired to expand the role of pharmacies after watching his mother form a “powerful bond” with patients at the family store
The Prime Minister returned to the Southampton pharmacy run by his mother Usha until 2014, where he helped measure and dispense medicines as a boy.
Sunak previously shared photos from his childhood during the Tory leadership campaign last summer
Mr. Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, pictured last summer with his mother Usha and father Yashvir
Mr Sunak also visited his family’s old shop last August during his Tory leadership campaign
The Prime Minister took a trip down memory lane today and returned to the pharmacy run by his mother Usha until 2014, where he helped measure and deliver medicines as a boy.
He said today’s prescription plans, due to take effect by winter, would make life easier for patients with mild symptoms and free up 15 million GP appointments a year.
‘Suppose you have children with an earache or a sore throat? You don’t need to call the doctor. You don’t have to wait for an appointment. You can just go to your pharmacist and get those medicines. If you’re someone who needs birth control or even blood pressure checks, all those things. We are now going to say that you can do it your pharmacy.
“And it’s great for patients because it allows them to get the care they need faster.”
Mr Sunak seemed to recognize that the government is likely to miss a target to increase the number of GPs by 6,000 next year.
But a new staffing plan in the coming months is expected to increase the number of training places by as much as 50 percent.
And the Prime Minister insisted that the pressure on GPs could be eased by referring patients to other doctors.
During a visit to a GP practice in Southampton, he said: ‘You don’t always have to see your GP. When we talk to the patients here, there’s someone who goes to a physical therapist, someone else who goes to a nurse to treat their asthma, someone else who goes to a nurse to treat their diabetes.
‘That is amazing. They don’t have to see the GP, they can see those people, get the care they need. They can get it faster and it frees up the GP to focus on the things only the GP can do. And that’s why we’ve hired about 25,000 more people since 2019. And this is what the modern general practice looks like.’
Mr Sunak outlined the plans as industry groups warned more pharmacies will close unless ministers provide more money to the ‘struggling’ sector.
On average, one pharmacy closes every five days, with owners warning that NHS payments cannot keep up with the rising price of medicines.
Mr Sunak said pharmacies are now receiving ‘record’ funding, with extra help for rural people. And he said he was committed to helping the industry thrive.
“Eighty percent of the country lives within about a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy, and for many people it’s easier to get to than their practice,” he said.
“That’s why we invest more in them and let them do more, and it’s not just more drugs that people can get there.”