Pharmacy Magazine reported that Asda was offering its reward card customers a £2 ‘bonus’ if they present at one of its pharmacies after being bitten by an insect.

Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK’s GP co-lead, said the scheme appeared to act as an ‘inducement to patients to get them to access Asda pharmacies and use the Pharmacy First infected insect bite pathway’.

An ASDA spokesperson said: “Customers are already being bitten and are shopping within our stores.” They added the funding came ‘solely from ASDA’.

Read the Pharmacy Magazine report in full.

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Dr Taylor, GP co-lead for the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) said the proposals reflect wider failures to properly fund general practice.

He was responding to the Government’s announcement of a £340 million expansion of the Pharmacy First scheme.

Dr Taylor acknowledged that pharmacies ‘form an integral part of Primary Care’ and for decades have ‘provided advice and guidance to patients’, despite being ‘significantly underfunded’.

Diagnosis and management

“However there are significant concerns that diagnosis and management of even ‘simple’ conditions might mean things are missed,” he said.

The Government says the changes, due to come into force this autumn, will allow more pharmacists with prescribing qualifications to treat patients directly without referral to a GP.

Five new conditions are expected to be added to the Pharmacy First scheme, although ministers have yet to confirm details.

Dr Taylor said: “If Pharmacies and GP practices were funded in proportion to the need then there would be no need for Pharmacy First as access to GPs would be there.

Pharmacy First

“Even the 3.3 million Pharmacy First consultations over the past 12 months needs to be put in context. This represents less than 1% of GP practice consultations of 1.5million a day.

“The broader question is whether pharmacies are the best place to put diagnosis and prescribing, or whether this is better in GP practices.

“Experienced pharmacists are likely to be more likely to know what they don’t know, it is debatable whether this can be true for all.”

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