Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Sore throat sufferers will be encouraged to visit their pharmacist instead of their GP for an on-the-spot test to see if they need antibiotics.
The walk-in service is aimed at reducing doctor appointments and to help reduce the over-use of antibiotics, NHS England said.
It is hoped the scheme could result in fewer visits to GPs -potentially saving the NHS millions of pounds a year.
But pharmacies say cuts in funding to the sector could jeopardise the scheme.
The Sore Throat Test and Treat service, which has been trialled in 35 Boots pharmacies, will determine if an illness is caused by a virus - meaning drugs will not help - or a bacterial infection.
Results from a throat swab, which measures sugars on the tongue, are provided in five minutes. Patients who can be helped by antibiotics will be prescribed them by the pharmacist and not have to see a GP.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37961366
See, the government are at it again! 🙄 First, they tried to get everyone to go to their GP instead of hospitals for things, and at the same time underfunded the service, increased bureaucracy and destroyed morale, driving many out of the profession and attracting fewer into it. Now they are encouraging people to go to their pharmacist instead of their GP - a sensible thing, in my opinion, but at the same time cutting funding and forcing pharmacies to close! 😱 Do Tory politicians have some sort of medical condition themselves that prevents them from linking policies, rather than thinking of them purely in isolation? The more I think about it, the more I am convinced - same has happened with social care, which is being run right down due to underfunding of councils, keeping people in expensive hospital beds. Mental health problems are on the increase, but beds are being cut and benefits sanctioned, cut or stopped
Can anyone point me to a policy where they have actually shown some coherence as a government, because I'm hard pushed to think of one
The walk-in service is aimed at reducing doctor appointments and to help reduce the over-use of antibiotics, NHS England said.
It is hoped the scheme could result in fewer visits to GPs -potentially saving the NHS millions of pounds a year.
But pharmacies say cuts in funding to the sector could jeopardise the scheme.
The Sore Throat Test and Treat service, which has been trialled in 35 Boots pharmacies, will determine if an illness is caused by a virus - meaning drugs will not help - or a bacterial infection.
Results from a throat swab, which measures sugars on the tongue, are provided in five minutes. Patients who can be helped by antibiotics will be prescribed them by the pharmacist and not have to see a GP.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37961366
See, the government are at it again! 🙄 First, they tried to get everyone to go to their GP instead of hospitals for things, and at the same time underfunded the service, increased bureaucracy and destroyed morale, driving many out of the profession and attracting fewer into it. Now they are encouraging people to go to their pharmacist instead of their GP - a sensible thing, in my opinion, but at the same time cutting funding and forcing pharmacies to close! 😱 Do Tory politicians have some sort of medical condition themselves that prevents them from linking policies, rather than thinking of them purely in isolation? The more I think about it, the more I am convinced - same has happened with social care, which is being run right down due to underfunding of councils, keeping people in expensive hospital beds. Mental health problems are on the increase, but beds are being cut and benefits sanctioned, cut or stopped
Can anyone point me to a policy where they have actually shown some coherence as a government, because I'm hard pushed to think of one 
