Community Pharmacy England submits evidence to Pharmacy Inquiry

Community Pharmacy England has submitted a full and detailed written response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s Pharmacy Inquiry.

The Committee is expected to hold oral evidence sessions when Parliament returns in the Autumn. The commencement of this inquiry follows on from those held on other primary care sectors, including Dentistry and General Practice.

According to the Committee website this inquiry ‘will explore issues impacting different types of pharmacy, with a particular focus on community, primary care and hospital pharmacy services’.

Key themes of our submission include:

• Suggestions on future service provision
• Challenges with the pharmacy workforce
• Longstanding underfunding of the sector
• Current pressures.

We will publish our submission as soon as it has been published by the Committee, in line with Parliamentary protocol.

Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said:

“This is an extremely important opportunity for all who work with and in the Pharmacy sector, to highlight not only the extreme challenges we face, but also ideas and suggestions for what more we can do to help patients and the public in the future.

“This inquiry is also very timely as it is likely to coincide with the publication of our Vision for the future of Community Pharmacy as well as the conclusion of negotiations on service expansion of Hypertension Case-Finding and the Pharmacy Contraception Scheme as well as the  service design for the Common Conditions Service

“We will, of course, submit supplementary evidence to the Committee on these topics, where appropriate.”

Steve Brine MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, said:

“It is clear that pharmacy has a central role to play in the future of the NHS. With a greater focus on personalised and patient-centred healthcare, we will be asking what more must be done to make sure that the profession is in the best shape to meet demand.

“Better use of the pharmacy workforce would reduce pressures on general practice and hospitals. However, this will not happen without a planned workforce with the funding, supervision and training to support it.

“At the end of our inquiry, we will be making recommendations to the government on what action needs to be taken to ensure the potential of pharmacy is realised.”