[Engineering-MD]

I was not belittling the pharmacist’s qualification, they often helped advise me and fit a specific role in the health care system. They are however trained for a different role (at least in the uk where I am based). General practioners are trained to deal with long term conditions. These conditions often require patients to be managed over a long period of time, and seem several times, hopefully by the same clinician. They also see them for the majority of their other illnesses. General practitioners allow a patient to develop a long term relationship with a doctor, and allow the doctor to become an expert in the patient.

I agree with you that a pharmacist is capable of dealing with many of these issues, but (at least in the uk) they are not primarily set up to deal with long term health conditions, and don’t develop that expertise in a single patient. If they become like GPs (which they feasibly could), it would work. But why do that when there is already a doctor who specialises in that? Maybe my arguments work less well in America, but my knowledge of that healthcare system is limited.

Ultimately though it seems we agree medications need some form of specialist oversight, rather than being freely available.