Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Stay Well Pharmacy campaign on (a) promoting the expertise of pharmacists and (b) reducing preventable emergency admissions to hospital.

The Stay Well Pharmacy campaign is part of a wider behaviour change programme to encourage the public to use their community pharmacy for advice and treatment for minor illness and health advice. This phase targeted parents and carers of young children under the age of five.

The evaluation of the campaign against its objectives showed:

- Awareness: Campaign objective: Achieve 30% unprompted awareness of Stay Well Pharmacy campaign amongst parents of young children under the age of five years by March 2018. The post campaign evaluation found 31% unprompted awareness of pharmacies as an option for minor health concerns by parents of young children under the age of five years.

- Understanding: Campaign objective: Achieve 30% of parents of young children under the age of five years agreeing they would use pharmacist services when they have symptoms of the minor illnesses mentioned by March 2018. The post campaign evaluation found 49% achievement of this campaign objective.

- Behavioural Intentions: Campaign objective: Achieve 35% of parents of young children under the age of five years claiming they would seek advice from community pharmacists for minor illnesses that can be effectively managed in pharmacy by March 2018. The post campaign evaluation found 26% achievement of this campaign objective.

The previous Stay Well This Winter campaign aimed at encouraging the 65+ and working age people with long term health conditions to seek advice from the local community pharmacy at the first signs of a winter illness (including coughs and colds) to get advice on managing the condition. This resulted in an additional 1.6 million visits to pharmacy. Modelling the impact of the campaign suggests it resulted in:

- 13,856 fewer people attending, with 6,016 fewer being admitted, to accident and emergency (A&E) during the three months the campaign aired: and

- 5,747 fewer people being admitted to A&E during the three months after the campaign aired.