"Public Wants More Pharmacy Services, Study Says", (c) Alex Franklin Stortford, Mediplacements.com, January 21, 2010

People in the UK are calling for more pharmacy services to become accessible so they can take advantage of local healthcare, a new survey has revealed.

Conducted by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, the report showed that 80 per cent of the public would welcome moves to introduce more community pharmacies to provide an easy way to get medicine and treatments, the Chemist & Druggist reports.

The 1,000 respondents were most concerned with the availability of testing kits for blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol levels, while improving access to treatments to those exempt from prescriptions payments was also considered important.

Kimberley Warren, senior brand manager at GlaxoSmithKline, claimed that having more pharmacies would improve healthcare because of an interest in "ensuring they use their enhanced role to broaden their customer base, improve loyalty and increase the number of visits made by existing customers."

GlaxoSmithKline is a research-based firm which aims to help tackle the global problems of Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as producing household health products in the UK.