Draft Pharmacy (Premises Standards, Information Obligations, etc.) Order 2016

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2016 General Committees

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I thank the Minister for his useful overview of the effects of the draft order.

No one will disagree with the overall aim of improving standards and practice in the distribution and use of medicines. Medicines are a critical and essential part of the healthcare system in this country, and the accurate dispensing of medicines and the quality of the advice given by pharmacists are of paramount importance.

Overall, the draft order is eminently sensible, but it must be looked at in the context of where community pharmacy is going. Around 1.6 million people visit pharmacies every day. Pharmacies are among the most high-frequency interfaces of the health and social care system, so they have huge potential to fulfil many of people’s most regular requirements of that system and potential to take the strain off accident and emergency departments and GP surgeries. I am therefore a little confused that the Government are pushing ahead with reductions in the community pharmacy budget, which I understand will be the subject of an oral question in the other place tomorrow afternoon.

Ministers themselves estimate that between 1,000 and 3,000 community pharmacies will have no option but to shut their doors. Those closures will mean job losses and worsening pay for people across the sector. Pharmacists are often seen as simply suppliers of medication that others prescribe, but I am sure that the Minister will agree that they are so much more than that. The Opposition worry that this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Pharmacists carry out legal and clinical checks, administer vaccinations and emergency contraception, and review the effectiveness of people’s medication. The changes in the sector will be regressive, and I hope that the Minister will reconsider them.

My colleague Lord Hunt of Kings Heath made an excellent point when the draft order was debated in the other place. When the Health and Social Care Bill was debated in 2012, there were discussions about whether community pharmacists could be represented on the boards of clinical commissioning groups. The Government decided against that, but I suspect that because pharmacists are not around the table we often miss their valuable contributions in discussions on various parts of the healthcare system, of which they are usually a crucial part. Lord Hunt was right to say that we are missing a trick here.

We are happy to support the draft order and we note that the responses to the Government’s consultation were overwhelmingly positive, but I have placed on the record the concerns of Her Majesty’s Opposition with the Government’s approach to the pharmacy sector and I hope that the Minister will take those concerns away.