Over the counter medication
June 2005
Collaborative care
OTC use has implications for many healthcare professionals. As it becomes more widespread and effective, it needs to become an integrated part of planned ‘NHS’ care. Guidelines for treatment, such as those already mentioned, should be coherent across the GP/self-care interface and consistency of information giving to the public is of paramount importance. Educational campaigns directed at the public should be used to promote self-care, and empower the pharmacist as a core member of the NHS team.
For collaborative care to be a reality, shared clinical records, including OTC medicine use need to be considered. This will support team working and allow a comprehensive audit trail of patient management to be maintained. There is some evidence that to record all OTC sales would be burdensome for pharmacies, unwelcome to patients and of concern to GPs because of the perceived increased liability it could bring (Porteous et al 2003). However, as the range of OTC medication continues to grow it may become increasingly important to record OTC use. As such, ways to facilitate recording and share records while acknowledging the perceived barriers should be identified.