But the organisations that represents thousands of pharmacists has warned few of its members have been involved in drawing up the Sustainability and Transformation Plans.It comes as the NHS pushes for medics to slash overall prescribing. The society suggests hundreds of millions could be saved if more pharmacists were able to prescribe. But Neal Patel, pharmacist and spokesman for the RPS, said: ‘Sometimes pharmacy is absent from them. ‘That’s a huge concern for us if pharmacy hasn’t been considered.’ Across five plans alone health chiefs hope to cut £186.6m (Suffolk and North East Essex, North East London, South West London, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, and Cheshire and Merseyside) in prescription costs.
Mr Patel said the savings could be made if there were more prescribing pharmacists, freeing up GP time. Complex patients with multiple conditions could be seen by pharmacists who could reduce the number of medications, in turn reducing the risk of adverse reactions between conflicting drugs and cutting emergency hospital admissions.
Full story in the Peterborough Telegraph, 21st February 2017