(Bloomberg) --UK pharmacies will be allowed to manage and supply more medicines including contraception without a doctor's prescription under new government plans to overhaul the creaking National Health Service.
The aim is to ease pressure on general practitioners, so that patients with the most urgent needs can be seen on the same day and everyone can get an appointment within two weeks, Health Secretary Therese Coffey will tell Parliament on Thursday, according to a statement from the Department of Health and Social Care.
The much-anticipated NHS plan is part of a raft of major policy announcements being made by Liz Truss's new government this week, after politics was put on hold following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It comes ahead of a mini-Budget planned on Friday by Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng to lay out measures to cut and simplify taxation.
The NHS is under immense pressure following years of budget cuts, staffing shortages and the relentless burden caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. There are now in excess of 6.8 million people waiting for hospital treatment in England -- a record -- and more than 370,000 of them have been waiting for longer than a year.
Campaign groups have warned the NHS could be overloaded this winter without immediate action, particularly if there's a resurgence of Covid.
Coffey will call on one million volunteers who stepped up during the pandemic to come forward again to support the NHS and social care system -- branding it a "national endeavor."
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Two million GP appointments a year could be freed up by giving pharmacies more power to dispense medicines, according to the department. Pharmacists will also take referrals from emergency care for minor illnesses or symptoms such as a cough, headache or sore throat, it said.
But the Royal College of GPs criticized the plans, saying they risk adding to "the intense workload and workforce pressures GPs and our teams are facing." In a statement, it called for more funding, a new retention and recruitment strategy, further investment in IT systems and cuts to bureaucracy.
The health secretary's plans also include changes to funding rules so medical practices can employ more staff including GP assistants and advanced nurse practitioners, and the NHS will accelerate the roll-out of new telephone systems to make it easier for patients to get through to their local surgery.
"We know this winter will be tough and this is just the first step in our work to bolster our valued NHS and social care services so people can get the care they need," Coffey is expected to say.
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