Pharmacy Voice calls for strong action to stop “prescription direction”

Pharmacy Voice – the body representing UK community pharmacies and whose members are the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) – has called for strong action to stop “prescription direction”. This is where patients are directed by some GPs or other healthcare professionals for where to go to get their prescriptions dispensed. Pharmacy Voice has praised an NHS England poster campaign that has gone to all pharmacies and GP practices to raise patients’ awareness of the issue. However, it wants to see even stronger action and has set up a has set up a specific group to build support for regulatory action to stop healthcare professionals from influencing where patients go. Pharmacy Voice has already developed a dossier of evidence and provided a joint statement with pharmacy and GP representatives speaking out against the practice.