The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has said that enabling pharmacists to substitute medicines will help reduce pressure on the NHS.
In response to the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) consultation on enabling pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines, the RPS said it will improve timely access to medicines and make better use of pharmacists’ skills.
This will also ease pressures across the NHS by reducing the need for patients to return to prescribers for minor prescription amendments.
The RPS said the DHSC should ensure that these measures are genuinely enabling for pharmacists and proportionate to the challenges faced in practice.
It said the safeguards must be practical and straightforward, as overly complex requirements risk undermining the effectiveness of the policy.
Excluding generic substitution is a missed opportunity to improve person-centred care and continuity of supply, it added.
The RPS pointed out that pharmacist flexibilities are already routine in secondary care and community pharmacists should be similarly empowered to use their clinical expertise.
RPS president Professor Claire Anderson said, “This consultation is a landmark moment for pharmacy and patient care. We’ve long campaigned for pharmacists to be empowered to use their professional judgement in the face of medicines shortages, and it’s great to see progress being made.
“The final proposals must be practical and truly enabling. Pharmacists are highly trained clinicians, and unnecessary bureaucracy must not stand in the way of providing patients with timely access to the medicines they need."
The RPS had in its 2024 report, “Medicine Shortages: solutions for empty shelves”, called for urgent reforms to enable pharmacists to act swiftly and safely when medicines are unavailable.
The DHSC proposes to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to increase pharmacist flexibility when dispensing medicines.
Under the Medicines Act 1968, pharmacists are not allowed to provide a safe alternative when a medicine is out of stock, forcing patients to revert to GPs and burdening the already overstretched pharmacy and GP teams.
Other pharmacy bodies, such as the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), had welcomed the DHSC's move to discuss pharmacist flexibilities.
