Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to support community pharmacies in the Exeter constituency.

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. We are committed to expanding the role of pharmacies and better utilising the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, including by cutting red tape. That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists.

On 30 June 2024 there were 13 pharmacies in the Exeter constituency. Nine out of 10 people in Exeter live within a mile or a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy. The Department does not hold data on how many pharmacies there were in the Exeter constituency in 2010.

The need for pharmaceutical services is best decided at a local level, which is why Local Authority Health and Wellbeing Boards are required to publish Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments every three years. In certain rural areas people may also be able to access Dispensing Doctors, and everyone can access Distance Selling Pharmacies, who provide services nationally, and must send medicines to a patient’s home free-of-charge.