Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to tackle pressures faced by community pharmacies by increasing the size of the community pharmacy workforce.
Answered on
19 April 2022
We are currently negotiating with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee on the expanded and additional services to be introduced in the fourth year of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. The Framework sets out the ambition for community pharmacy to be further integrated to provide more clinical services, such as treatment for minor illnesses, to relieve pressures elsewhere in the National Health Service.
New clinical services already introduced include the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service, where staff in general practices and NHS 111 can refer patients to community pharmacies for advice and treatment of minor illnesses, blood pressure checks and the Discharge Medicines Service, providing patients recently discharged from hospital with support with their medication. All pharmacies are now also healthy living pharmacies requiring teams to be aware of local health issues and proactively promoting healthy lifestyles.
NHS England is investing a further £15.9 million over the next four years to support the expansion of frontline pharmacy staff in primary and community care, to provide increased access to educational, prescribing and clinical training and development opportunities for post registration pharmacy professionals to meet the needs of patients and local communities.