Dr. Susan O'Dwyer:

Ms Mitchell would be able to talk about this from the front line. Every day she is seeing patients that are coming in. She knows what they need to treat their minor condition but she cannot give it to them either because they are a patient who does not have the ability to pay or because it is a medication that is not currently available. She will know that is taking time from GPs. A GP appointment is a precious point of time. There are different numbers of patients and only a certain number can access it. If you have a patient with uncomplicated athletes foot and one with uncontrolled hypertension, it is the one with uncontrolled hypertension who needs to be seen by the GP where the one with athletes foot could easily be seen in the community pharmacy. What you are doing is freeing up capacity. We estimate that you could free-up up to 1 million appointments in the GP sector just be increasing access to minor ailments treatment and assessments in community pharmacies. There will be 400,000 extra medical cards coming in April putting more pressure on that system. Increasing the numbers of points of access to care really will help to make the system a lot more equitable and convenient.