Pharmacists can play bigger role in managing primary health care with better access to data, says expert

Louise Fullwood of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that pharmacists are "highly trained and motivated individuals" who are "subject to strong regulation and are very connected with communities at high street level". However, she said they are currently an "underutilised resource" when it comes to provision of health care in the UK.

Giving pharmacists greater access to patient health data to improve the services they provide would benefit patients, so long as there are "appropriate privacy safeguards" in place, she said.

Fullwood was commenting after the Daily Telegraph reported that it had seen a report outlining plans for pharmacies in England to be given access to patient's summary care records from this autumn. Patients would have to give their consent for pharmacies to access data about them, which includes details of medicines prescribed to them.

"Pharmacies and pharmacists can only use information for the offering of clinical service to patients," NHS England said. "They are bound by the same terms of service and regulations as with their access to any other information. Pharmacists are regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Society and must comply with the Data Protection Act."

Fullwood said: "We know that GPs are under a great deal of time pressure and patients may not always be able to take time to discuss their conditions in full. Being able to access these summary health care records could allow pharmacists to take on a more active role, with them having more time to talk with patients about their condition and medicines, to talk about side effects and how to avoid them, and to give medicines management and health care advice, as well as providing an extra check that new prescriptions will not react adversely with medication the patient is already taking or other conditions they may have."

Fullwood said that pharmacies increasingly have private consultation rooms to allow such discussions to take place in private.

"Legislation has widened the scope of the services which pharmacists can offer and I think that even more could be done to make fuller use of health care professionals other than GPs in managing primary healthcare," Fullwood said.