My amendments 1 and 2 primarily relate to self-care. I acknowledge that self-care is recognised by care professionals as part of the healthcare process, but, like prevention, it should not be an afterthought—a concept that we think invaluable but that we never get around to fully including in our health ecosystem in the way we ought to.
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Amendment 1 would ensure that
“everyday wellbeing, self-care for minor ailments and the management of long-term conditions”
are promoted and integrated into local health systems. As we learned during the first waves of the pandemic, those with minor ailments are best off seeking care within their local community, for example, by practising self-care or seeking advice from their local pharmacist to support them in their illness. There is nothing wrong with promoting self-care, but it must be as part of a wider, more comprehensive health system, where it is needed.
The health system has promoted self-care forever. It has always done so as part of the process. As integrated care systems become statutory organisations, primary care networks will continue to be an important conduit for improving self-care in the community. They provide an opportunity for the community pharmacy to be fully integrated into local primary care and improve communication across all primary healthcare providers. Promoting and integrating self-care across the self-care continuum, from everyday wellbeing to self-care for minor ailments and the management of long-term conditions, will help to empower people to know when and how to self-care, and in turn support more sustainable local health systems.
Amendment 2 focuses on how community pharmacists are well placed to drive a holistic approach to self-care. They can advise people on the most effective over-the-counter treatments, as well as on self-care techniques, for example, via the community pharmacist consultation service, which has been an important initial step in ensuring that the system is designed to support self-care for treatable conditions. The amendment would ensure that the strategies developed by integrated care partnerships take account of the benefits that services offered by pharmacists for minor ailments can provide, in turn helping to integrate these services into local care pathways.
During covid, many people decided not to go to GPs, and many continue to say they will not go to GPs, but will try to get support outside the GP system as part of that self-care process, as a couple of surveys have indicated. One of the questions they were asked was how they felt about getting advice online or from a pharmacist.
I reaffirm, if it were needed, that self-care is not about self-isolation from health care services. It is not about reducing the strain on the NHS by a sort of self-imposed rationing. It is about not diverting people away from healthcare, but rather providing another route into it. These amendments, at the very least, ask the Government to think on the need for a more structured approach to self-care that is there to help and benefit patients.
The question is whether this Bill, in the round, achieves a reboot of self-care in the light of covid. I am not sure it does, but I ask the Minister to consider carefully the process of self-care in a much more formalised way.