Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department has allocated to (a) the Community Pharmacy Referral Scheme and (b) the Digital Illness Referral Service in each fiscal year since the programmes have been in operation.

In December 2016, a new referral scheme to community pharmacy was initiated from NHS 111 to community pharmacy in response to urgent requests for medication. This has been running as a pilot with national coverage achieved by June 2017 with over 4,000 pharmacies now registered to deliver the service. This pilot is named as the NHS Urgent Medicines Supply Advanced Service (NUMSAS) within the community pharmacy contractual framework running until October 2019.

From December 2017, a further scheme started in the North East enabling the referral of patients from NHS 111 to community pharmacy for a community pharmacist consultation about minor illness symptoms. This pilot known as the Digital Minor Illness Referral Service (DMIRS) was extended to Devon, London and the East Midlands from December 2018 and is continuing until October 2019. Over 2,000 pharmacies are registered to deliver the minor illness service.

Both schemes are funded by the Pharmacy Integration Fund with the audited spend provided by NHS England as follows:

The audited spend for 2018/19 is not yet available.