To alleviate the saturation in primary care, the executive of Rishi Sunak has implemented a new plan in which the Pharmacists may prescribe some medications. In total, the list includes seven types, including antibiotics and anticonceptive pill. According to his forecast, he intends to release 15 million GP appointments in the next two years.

A measure that in Spain some pharmacists welcome positively. Noelia Tejedor, a pharmacist in Madrid, believes that “it is a real need.” For Sonia Sáenz de Buruaga pharmaceutical in Bilbao, she explains that “in the end what they have done is integrate the pharmacy into that primary care“.

For its part, the College of Pharmacists advocates increasing its competencies, but do not prescribe Ana López-Casero, spokesperson for the General Council of Pharmacists makes it clear that “the diagnosis and prescription is from the doctor and the pharmacist has a wide field of action far beyond what we have at the moment”. For patients it is also positive because it would save them time but they also clarify “as long as they know what they are selling”.

But for GPs it is not the solution to replace the sanitary deficit. Susana Rodríguez de Cos, family doctor and primary care delegate of ‘AMyTS’ It is an error “that should never be applied in Spain. It is the doctor who has the necessary skills to be able to prescribe.” And he warns that the risks that they entail for the patient are greater than the benefits “if we are only noticing that the patient goes to the pharmacy and for a symptom gives him a medication without looking at anything else, we could be getting him into a much bigger problem of what he brought”.