Pharmacies to be able to prescribe medication under plans to free up GP appointments

Published

2 years ago

May 9, 2023

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Patients will be able to receive prescription medicines and oral contraception without seeing a GP under new plans to ease the strain on surgeries.

It is hoped the measures – which could be rolled out across England as soon as this winter – will help to free up 15 million slots at doctors’ surgeries over the next two years.

Under the proposals, pharmacists will be able to write prescriptions for common conditions including earache, sore throat and urinary tract infections without needing the approval of a GP.

The measures – which are part of what ministers are calling an “overhaul of primary care” – are backed by £645m of spending over two years and come alongside efforts to end the 8am “rush” for appointments.

They are being announced just days after the Conservatives suffered from a punishing set of local election results on the back of high inflation, a cost of living crisis and record high levels of unhappiness with the NHS.

Ministers hope almost half a million women would no longer need to speak to a nurse or GP to get oral contraception under the new plans and that the number of people able to access blood pressure checks in pharmacies would be more than doubled to 2.5 million a year.

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Self-referrals will also be increased for services including physiotherapy, hearing tests and podiatry, bypassing the need to see a GP.

The proposals could be in place this winter pending a consultation with the industry.

The prime minister said “transforming primary care is the next part of this government’s promise to cut NHS waiting lists”.

“I know how frustrating it is to be stuck on hold to your GP practice when you or a family member desperately need an appointment for a common illness,” he added.

“We will end the 8am rush and expand the services offered by pharmacies, meaning patients can get their medication quickly and easily.”

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the reforms would “help us to free up millions of appointments for those who need them most, as well as supporting staff so that they can do less admin and spend more time with patients”.

Steps are being taken to make it easier for patients to see GP – but they may feel short-changed

The government’s Primary Care Plan wants to do two things at once: make it easier for patients to access their GP and to take pressure off GPs so they can manage their patient lists better.

But by doing the former they might be making the latter worse – unless the workforce crisis in primary care is resolved.

A recent survey said seven out of ten GPs found their jobs to be extremely stressful and another found that more than a third of GPs want to quit within five years.

This recruitment and retention issue needs to be addressed urgently.

The government says it will provide £240m for primary care to update existing telephone systems so more calls can be taken, clinically assessed and directed to most appropriate treatment.

This will not always be a GP. It might be a practice nurse or speciality inside a community health team.

There is a perception that GPs do not see enough patients. But the data for March shows 70% of GP appointments were seen face to face.

And primary care doctors will tell you they are seeing more patients than ever before as patient lists continue to grow.

Another step will be to train GP receptionists to become ‘clinical navigators’ so they can field calls and clinically assess the patient and refer the caller to the best service.

This might ease some patient anxiety but it will require a cultural shift in mindset. People expect to see a doctor and feel short-changed if they do not.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting criticised the announcement as “merely tinkering at the edges” and said it did not deliver the “fundamental reform” the NHS needs.

He pointed to figures from the Chemists’ Association which reveal that 670 pharmacies and 343 surgeries have closed since 2015.

Mr Streeting said: “13 years of Conservative failure has seen hundreds of pharmacies close and 2,000 GPs cut.

“Now millions of patients are waiting a month to see a GP, if they can get an appointment at all. Expecting the Conservatives to fix this is like expecting an arsonist to put out the fire they started.

“Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch with the problems facing patients and the NHS. He has no plan to address the shortage of GPs, or to reverse the cut in the number of doctors trained every year.

“The Conservatives’ announcement is merely tinkering at edges, in contrast to the fundamental reform the NHS needs and Labour is offering.”

Mr Streeting said Labour would abolish the non-dom tax status and use the proceeds to train an extra 7,500 doctors and 10,000 nurses every year.

The idea of giving pharmacists the power to prescribe without GP approval is not new.

Therese Coffey, who was health secretary during the short period of Liz Truss’s premiership, floated plans to enable pharmacies to manage and supply contraception prescriptions last September.

She also pledged that patients would see a GP within two weeks of making an appointment – although she did not set a target for when that should be achieved by.

UK

‘A constant game of cat and mouse’: Inside the crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers

Published

2 hours ago

July 10, 2025

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'A constant game of cat and mouse': Inside the crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers

The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.

“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.

“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”

Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.

The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.

“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.

“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”

Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.

He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.

He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.

We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.

Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.

This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.

Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’s retail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.

She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.

“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.

“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”

There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.

Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.

But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.

“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.

The gig economy – so prevalent in every city – creates another incentive for those wanting to risk their lives coming to the UK illegally.

More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in 2025 – a record number at this point of the year.

For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.

There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.

As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.

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This flimsy vessel carrying migrants could reach British waters in a few hours’ time

Published

5 hours ago

July 10, 2025

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This flimsy vessel carrying migrants could reach British waters in a few hours' time

We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.

And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.

There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.

Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.

The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.

A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.

As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.

Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.

Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.

The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.

The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.

We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.

They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.

In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.

We follow the boat as it chugs off in the direction of Britain, carrying around 50 people.

The Minck returns to shadowing its progress, but its job is limited to offering help if the boat gets into trouble.

Otherwise, if the engine keeps working, then this flimsy vessel will reach British waters in a few hours’ time.

UK

‘A constant game of cat and mouse’: Inside the police crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers

Published

8 hours ago

July 10, 2025

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