Community Pharmacy Scotland says a new scheme to get people to go to speak to their local pharmacist about minor illnesses is a world first.

The membership organisation for Scotland’s high street pharmacies is consulting its members across Scotland ahead of the introduction of NHS Pharmacy First in March. The fourth roadshow meeting takes place in Lothian this evening.

Under the scheme, anyone living in Scotland will be able to get advice – and, where possible, treatment – from their local pharmacy team.

It’s part of the Scottish government’s ambition to deliver as much healthcare as possible in communities and outside hospital, as well as spreading GPs’ workloads across the wider healthcare team.

Matt Barclay, a pharmacist and director of operations with Community Pharmacy Scotland, is telling healthandcare.scot in a commentary published today that the scheme supports pharmacists to engage with many more patients who come into their local pharmacy.

“This is a huge, fundamental culture shift for pharmacy teams and for the public.

“There is extra resource going to be put in by government to support the service, both to promote it and in terms of the pharmacy services contract itself.

“So, we thought it was important to get the message out about why this service is important – not just how the service will happen, but also the reason that community pharmacy is seen to be so crucial to the NHS in Scotland in terms of reshaping an element of primary care.”

Under NHS Pharmacy First, any person ordinarily resident in Scotland, the homeless, those in care homes and the travelling community, will be able to consult their pharmacist and be given advice, prescribed a treatment or referred on to another healthcare professional.

The scheme builds on the long-established minor ailment service – previously only open to people who had historically been eligible for free prescriptions – and a series of local Pharmacy First pilots where pharmacists were reimbursed to treat people with a small list of conditions.

A new pharmacy contract to accompany the initiative will move the emphasis from simply paying pharmacists for the number of items dispensed to recognising their level of engagement with patients.