PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CONFERENCE: Community pharmacists have a key role to play in the development of primary care services, according to the director of Primary Care in Northern Ireland.
Dr Jim Livingstone told delegates at the first national conference on the primary care strategy that pharmacists were healthcare professionals who had a significant role in addressing the health needs of the community.
Describing the development of primary care in Northern Ireland, he said: "We have placed a great emphasis on the very ready access of pharmacies to local communities. At 1½ million interactions per month, there is huge contact between pharmacists and local people."
Another major issue faced by the 15 local health and social care groups in the North - who are charged with improving primary care services - was the issue of professional demarcation.
"We have to move away from the philosophy of the GP being God and nurses his hand-maidens," Dr Livingstone said. "There are major changes involved for each professional group - nurses will undertake limited prescribing, pharmacists can deliver effective primary care, and the GP must no longer be seen as the only source of reliable advice in the community."
The pace of change had to be sensibly planned and managed. "The expectations you create in the community must be honest and there must be community and user participation," he said.
Dr Livingstone questioned whether primary care has a public profile in the way that hospitals and medical technology have. "It is easy for primary care to be underrated by the community because it generally provides a good service - a lack of resources can result from this complacency," he said.
Prof Andrew Murphy, professor of general practice at NUI Galway, told delegates that the issue of equity and eligibility for health services had to be considered alongside that of teamwork in primary care.
"The team must be allowed to perform on a level pitch where it can be effective", he said in reference to the public-private divide and the fact that current medical card eligibility limits are lower than the minimum wage.
In his address to the conference, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said that the Government was fully committed to the implementation of the primary care strategy. The strategy, he said, was aimed at providing "enhanced capacity for primary care in the areas of disease prevention, rehabilitation and personal social services to complement the existing diagnosis and treatment focus".
The Minister placed particular emphasis on the commitment in the primary care strategy to involve the community in the planning and development of primary care services.
"The partnership approach in which we are all now engaged means that there must be a genuine involvement of the community - and this means the community in general, not just special groups within it," he said.