The UK consumer healthcare industry association, PAGB, has called on the country’s new government to put self-care at the front of its legislative agenda for the next few months.
“With the UK’s National Health Service under unprecedented pressure – including continued difficulties in accessing a GP appointment, persistent waiting lists and ambulances queuing outside accident and emergency (A&E) – the public’s concern for addressing issues in the NHS are at an all-time high,” PAGB commented in a recently-published action plan.
Prioritizing “deliverable actions on self-care” – especially in the first 100 days since the UK Labour Party won the 4 July general election with a significant, 174-seat majority – could deliver “quick and cost-effective wins” for the new government and “help reduce the burden on the front door of the NHS ahead of the winter illnesses season,” the association added.
Among the six “key actions” recommended by PAGB is leveraging Rx-to-OTC switch to “promote an attractive environment for the OTC sector, to ensure its continued investment in, and prioritization of, the UK market.”
The Labour Party could, for example, draw on the findings of a PAGB-led collaboration with the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and self-care industry on widening patient access to OTC medicines through switching, it suggested. (Also see "UK Government Wants To Work With Industry To Identify OTC Switch Candidates" - HBW Insight, 6 June, 2023.)
Making more drugs available without a prescription could save the UK NHS an estimated additional £1.4bn ($1.8bn) per year, according to research commissioned by PAGB from analysts Frontier Economics. (Also see "Switch More Drugs To Save UK Health System £1.4bn Annually, Says PAGB" - HBW Insight, 25 July, 2023.)
Open Door?
PAGB could be pushing at an open door. Labour’s election manifesto promised to change the emphasis of UK healthcare policy towards prevention, focusing on the management of chronic, long-term conditions.
“Labour’s reforms will shift our NHS away from a model geared towards late diagnosis and treatment, to a model where more services are delivered in local communities,” the manifesto states. “We will embed a greater focus on prevention throughout the entire healthcare system and supporting services. As we knew in 1945, much avoidable ill health can be prevented.”
In his 17 July King's Speech – which outlines the legislative program for the next parliamentary session on behalf of the UK Prime Minister – King Charles III said that the new government “will focus on prevention and improve mental health provision for young people.”
While a legislative instrument was mooted for the latter – the Mental Health Bill – the former promise is not supported by a Bill at this stage.
Public Support
The UK public also wants widened access to medicines, according the PAGB’s latest Self-Care Census, published to coincide with International Self-Care Day (24 July).
Three-quarters (74%) of respondents to PAGB’s survey said they want to see more medicines switched from prescription-only so they can be provided by a pharmacist.
“Increasing switching of prescription-only medicines to pharmacy medicines not only improves people’s choice and access to their treatment, but it can also benefit the healthcare system more broadly,” commented PAGB CEO Michelle Riddalls. “Greater availability of over-the-counter medicines means fewer GP visits, A&E interactions and the potential to prevent self-treatable conditions worsening with early intervention through self-care.”
PAGB also found that almost a quarter (23%) of those aged 25 to 34 in the UK admit they would try to get a doctor’s appointment for a self-treatable condition, compared to just 9% of those aged 65 or older.
“This automatic pilot reliance on primary care, particularly among younger consumers, is worrying and it shows there is still a lot of work to be done around educating consumers on the benefits of self-care,” Riddalls noted. “Utilizing the advice and expertise available from community pharmacies, as well as the wealth of online support and guidance from the NHS and consumer healthcare brands, not only enables consumers to take more control of their health and wellbeing, it also relieves pressure on the health service.”
