To reduce pressure on hospitals, patients going to A&E units with common conditions are being directed to nearby high street pharmacies under a pilot scheme.
The emergency department at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, has teamed up with Pearl Chemist Group to treat patients with one of the seven common illnesses, including earaches and sore throats, The Times reports.
The A&E books such patients for a consultation with a pharmacist at one of Pearl’s 30 pharmacies.
Meanwhile, Pearl Chemist is using robots to dispense drugs, so that its pharmacists can focus on treating patients.
The pharmacy has invested £1 million per robot that fetches the required medication and sends it down conveyor belts to reach a pharmacist.
It can dispense 13,000 boxes a day, thereby saving pharmacy staff hours to fetch the medication themselves.
Pearl Chemist director Mike Patel explained that when an order is made, the robot knows exactly where the medicine is located in the store and brings it out.
It can even check dates to prevent any medicine past its expiry date from entering the system.
This frees up time for pharmacists to interact with patients and know their health problems.
Thousands of patients go to A&E every year with conditions such as sinusitis, earache, urinary tract infections and shingles, often because they cannot see a GP.
The NHS is trying to project pharmacies as the first port of call for several common conditions.
From September 2026, all newly-qualified pharmacists will be independent prescribers due to changes made in pharmacy education.
They will be able to prescribe where necessary, provide care previously provided by GPs, and help reduce waiting times.
