Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the role of community pharmacies in keeping people healthy.

We have long recognised that community pharmacy teams play a vital role in improving people’s health, preventing ill-health and helping to reduce health inequalities. Informed by a growing evidence base, we have enabled community pharmacy to deliver a wide range of public health services. We have actively supported the implementation of Healthy Living Pharmacies, with qualified health champions on site reaching out to, and improving the health of, people in their communities.

Public Health England (PHE) keeps under review the progress that pharmacy is making on keeping people healthy and is providing system leadership for pharmacy’s public health role and strategic leadership for the acceleration and spread of Healthy Living Pharmacies across the country. PHE’s vision for pharmacy is one in which community pharmacy teams are fully integrated into the local primary care networks, playing an appropriate and pivotal role in improving the health of people in England. PHE has built a strong relationship with the sector, seeking to utilise its unique offering of access, location and an informal environment, with trusted staff that reflect the background of the communities that they serve. PHE is embedding pharmacy in its priority public health programmes such as prevention, early detection and management of blood pressure, NHS Health Checks and smoking cessation.