Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to allow community pharmacies to care for patients with long-term health conditions through (a) medical reviews and (b) other assistance with that condition.

Community pharmacies already take significant steps to care for patients with long term conditions (LTCS). Community pharmacy staff routinely deliver a range of services to meet the needs of patients with LTCs, including timely dispensing of medicines, opportunistic and prescription-linked public health interventions, such as advice on a healthy diet and nutrition, stop smoking advice to help maintain the health of people with LTCs such as diabetes and heart disease, support for self-care and signposting, when they are not able to provide the support themselves.

In addition, community pharmacists provide advice on the safe use of medicines so they are taken as intended, through medicines use reviews and the new medicines service, the latter intended for people with certain LTCs prescribed new medicines. Utilising pharmacists clinical skills assists with optimising medicines in a way which puts patients at the centre of decision making, with regular monitoring and review, helping to improve their health outcomes.

The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public health services to the benefit of patients, including those with LTCs, and the public.