A final report by a government task force has identified eight common illnesses that pharmacists could prescribe medication for without the need for people to visit a GP.
These include cold sores, shingles, oral thrush and conjunctivitis
Fethard pharmacist Jimmy O’Sullivan told Tipp Today earlier that they will effectively become a one-stop shop for these ailments.
“We have patients in every day – we’re chatting to them, we’re asking them their symptoms and we’re diagnosing basically what it is. Then we’re saying to them ‘okay you need to go to the doctor for a prescription for that.’
“So basically we will have the one consultation – all the chat and the consultation that we’ve had with the patient basically we can finish.”
