A new NHS England campaign is urging parents of children with minor illnesses to take them to pharmacies before GPs or A&E.
The call follows a survey that found only 6% of parents with children under fiver years would visit a pharmacist before a GP or A&E department. This is only just higher than the number of parents who would go straight to A&E (5%).
The NHS’s website says A&E departments are reserved for ‘genuine life-threatening emergencies’.
The parental reliance on GPs and A&E departments comes despite almost 4 in 5 adults saying they were aware that pharmacists were ‘qualified healthcare professionals’.
Dr Bruce Warner, deputy chief pharmaceutical officer for NHS England, said: ‘Pharmacists are highly trained NHS health professionals who are able to offer clinical advice and effective treatments for a wide range of minor health concerns right there and then.’
The survey also found that visits to A&E for such ‘self-treatable’ conditions cost the service £850 million a year.
NHS England said the number of GP and A&E appointments for ‘self-treatable’ conditions every year were 18 million and 2.1 million, respectively. The survey of more than 2000 people revealed that 35% of parents with young children (under 5) would go to a GP for minor illnesses such as stomach ache or diarrhoea.
Patients’ groups, however, have warned that parents should not be put off from seeing a GP if unsure.
‘For common childhood illnesses, a pharmacist will often be a sensible first port of call, so we welcome efforts to raise awareness of the support they can offer,’ said the Patients Association’s chief executive, Rachel Power.
‘Equally, we wouldn't want to see parents put off taking their children to see a doctor if they have any suspicion that something more serious could be wrong.’
Ms Power did, however, question the timing of the campaign: ‘While this campaign has its merits, the timing is not a coincidence. The pressures facing the NHS after years of underfunding and mismanagement of its workforce create a huge incentive to discourage people from using GPs or A&E.
‘Often people will be right to use alternatives, but we don't want to hear of more cases where someone has stayed away and subsequently come to serious harm because they were in fact seriously ill.’
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said patients can help ease pressure on GPs by visiting a pharmacist first. But warned: ‘they are not GPs and in an emergency or situation where genuinely unsure, patients should always seek expert medical assistance.’