Sabotage, not strategy: why the NHS can’t afford turf wars between GPs and pharmacists
It was deeply disappointing to hear reports that leaders within the British Medical Association have encouraged GPs to “overwhelm A&E” instead of referring patients to Pharmacy First.
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This is not strategy; it’s sabotage. It doesn’t just create professional tension it undermines patients trust and damages the NHS. Healthcare shouldn’t be a battlefield where patients are collateral.
Pharmacy First was launched to make life easier for patients and to support the wider NHS: enabling people to get treatment for common conditions directly from their pharmacist, without waiting weeks for a GP appointment. It’s practical, and evidence-based.
Patients are already responding positively and pharmacists are delivering care efficiently. So why would anyone want to deliberately disrupt that?
Pharmacists have stepped up time and again, through the pandemic, through medicine shortages, and through rising demand across the NHS. And yet instead of being recognised as trusted partners, they are being treated as competitors by other parts of the healthcare system. That helps no one.
Patients don’t care about professional politics. They care about being seen, treated and listened to. They care about being provided advice without spending hours in A&E or waiting days for a GP slot.
When I hear calls to “overwhelm” emergency departments, I don’t hear leadership. I hear frustration misdirected at the wrong people.
Pharmacists didn’t design the pressures facing primary care but they are very much part of the solution.
If we want a sustainable NHS then collaboration is the only way forward. That means recognising the skills of every healthcare professional, supporting each other and ensuring patients are sent to the right place first time.
Pharmacy First should be something we are proud of a modern, evidence-based model that frees up GPs and hospitals.
However, we should also be questioning why it took so long for a model well established in Wales and Scotland to arrive. Turning it into a political pawn is short-sighted and unfair to both staff and patients.
The NHS doesn’t need turf wars. It needs teamwork, clarity and communication. When leaders choose sabotage over collaboration, it’s not pharmacists or GPs who suffer most, it’s the patients left waiting in pain for care that could have been delivered on their doorstep.
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Thorrun Govind is a Pharmacist and Healthcare lawyer
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