Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the current balance of the pharmacy integration fund is; and what initiatives have been supported by that fund since its inception.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are awaiting the completion of the annual audit of its accounts, therefore no final figure is currently available for the balance of the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF). The PhIF has supported a range of initiatives, including:

- Recruitment and training of pharmacists to support integrated urgent care services, offering patients and care staff direct access to clinical advice and care from pharmacists;

- Putting pharmacists and pharmacy technicians into the multi-disciplinary teams delivering enhanced health in care homes, to support medicines optimisation for people who live in care homes;

- The development of an urgent medicines supply service. This connects people who contact NHS 111 for urgent access to medicines with local community pharmacies who are able to dispense, and redirects demand out of general practitioner out of hours services, and/or accident and emergency departments;

- The piloting of a minor illness service, which enables people who contact NHS 111 to get urgent care and advice from a local community pharmacy for a range of common illness complaints; and

- Providing leadership training for the profession to support them to work effectively with their partners in the emerging integrated care systems, with a focus on delivering the range of benefits of medicines optimisation.

Further information can be found on NHS England’s website and accessed via the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/pharmacy/pharmacy-integration-fund/