Pharmacists in England supports idea of ‘National Self-Care Strategy’, reveals report

A new report based on research from pharmacists across England by Sanofi, has called for the introduction of a ‘national self-care strategy’ to relieve the
burden currently faced by health services.

The new report, titled ‘Driving a self-care revolution in the UK’, explores the views of pharmacists, patients and doctors on self-care and the support needed to
deliver it more effectively. While self-care policy measures are estimated to increase monetary savings for healthcare systems and national economies by 16%, this
report highlights the right tools and resources are not yet in place to enable pharmacists to play a greater role in delivering self-care advice and medicines to
patients.

“As many as 77% of pharmacists said they would support the creation of a National Self-Care Strategy to provide national leadership on improving understanding of
self-care and encourage its use among both patients and clinicians,” the report said.

According to the report, currently, 33% of pharmacists working for independent or small pharmacy chains do not have the resources to support patients with self-care,
alongside their other roles. “To tackle this, close to half (45%) of pharmacists believe greater emphasis by primary care practitioners on the benefits of self-care
would leave pharmacists in a better place to support patients. Similarly, 42% believe that training and recruiting more pharmacists would improve their capacity to
deliver self-care advice.”