Healthwatch influences All Party Parliamentary Group on Pharmacy report
The Future of Community Pharmacy in England
This month, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Pharmacy (APPG) published The Future of Community Pharmacy in England. It makes seven recommendations to government, based on evidence it heard from Healthwatch England and other stakeholders.
Healthwatch informed decision making, including the APPG's recommendations to expand Pharmacy First and to reduce variability of services across England for patients through better commissioning.
The report cites Healthwatch polling, which showed many patients were comfortable seeing a pharmacist instead of a GP for conditions covered by Pharmacy First, and were keen to see an expanded number of conditions included in the scheme.
During Healthwatch's evidence session, they also raised the issue of lack of integrated care board expertise in pharmacy service commissioning in some areas (informed by intelligence shared by you, including the battle by Healthwatch Richmond in London to save a local pharmacy). The report notes 'regional variation in service commissioning results in significant disparities in patient access'.
Healthwatch also shared network evidence on medication shortages and temporary closures causing safety and access issues.
Recommendations
Please find a summary of the report's recommendations below.
- Provide a long-term funding settlement and modernise the pharmacy contract.
- Harness the untapped potential of community pharmacies to enable them to function as 'fully integrated local health hubs'.
- Expand Pharmacy First into a national, walk-in clinical service, covering a wider range of conditions.
- Tackle workforce issues and ensure enough supervisory capacity is available to oversee graduates, who will all, from September 2026, enter the workforce with independent prescribing qualifications.
- Give pharmacists clinical autonomy to substitute drugs in short supply, instead of being restricted to those covered by national serious shortage protocols.
- Better integrate pharmacy with other parts of the NHS, included joined-up IT with GP practices, better representation within integrated care systems and new national commissioning standards.
- Leverage community pharmacy to enhance the management of long-term conditions.