Whilst in Manchester for the Conservative Conference, Mark Simmonds, the Shadow Minister for Health, visited us at Thackers Pharmacy to discuss the current situation in pharmacy. Several issues were raised including:
- The role of pharmacy in providing additional services to patients, with particular reference to our oral contraception service where patients do not need to see the GP
- Results of the cardiovascular checks undertook by many pharmacies across Manchester including Thackers Pharmacy
- The changes in our profession with an increase in clinical services aswell as the dispensing role
- The importance of pharmacy being the only healthcare professional where an appointment is not required for patients.
- How to tackle the excess waste of medication stock piled at patients homes
Mark Simmonds is to launch the "Ask your pharmacist week" running from November 9th-15th 2009 in Parliament on 4th November with a focus on promoting key services through pharmacies, which are allergy screening, chlamydia testing and treatment, health checks, medicine use reviews, minor ailments schemes, stop smoking services and supplementary prescribing.
At the moment at Thackers Pharmacy we provide chlamydia testing and treatment, health checks, medicine use reviews and stop smoking services. We are looking into providing a minor ailment scheme in the near future.
