Patient numbers in remote and rural areas can change significantly depending on season. In some areas, populations can increase by as much as a third on any given day when cruise ships arrive. This can have a dramatic impact on service levels and is an additional factor making workforce planning in remote and rural areas particularly complicated. However, services that community pharmacies provide, for example to support management of potential Lyme disease, are vital and improve accessibility and save other parts of the health service picking this up, often later down the line. We need to ensure variations in the services that are offered is kept to a minimum so patients know what they can access and where. Similarly, pharmacy can provide unscheduled care for patients which can prevent people having to travel to secondary care centres or attend accident and emergency departments. They can also provide emergency supplies of regular medication when tourists and visitors forget their own which delivers person centred care.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation