Call for closer working between GPs and pharmacies

DOCTORS have called for closer working between GPs and pharmacies in a bid to ensure Scottish patients get more health support.

The British Medical Association has called for an increase in the number of pharmacists working in GP practices to ensure that patients get correct and up-to-date advice on any medications they are prescribed.

Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish General Practitioners Committee, said: “Patients should be well informed regarding the medicines they have been prescribed and the regime for taking these medicines.

“Pharmacists can provide support and information to improve compliance with medicine taking among patients.”

He said the Government should work to increase the number of pharmacists working in practices.

Dr Marshall said: “These pharmacists play an important role in the interface between primary and secondary care, when patients are discharged, and between GP practices and local community pharmacists.”

The BMA has also suggested that funding pharmacists to provide dosette box dispensing could help patients’ better control the time and frequncy they take medication.