Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what safeguards his Department plans to provide to ensure that pharmacies serving (a) deprived and (b) rural areas do not close as a result of changes to funding for community pharmacies.

Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive, including in deprived and rural areas. We are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

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 and the public.

We have consulted with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and others, including patient and public representatives, on our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. These are being considered in respect to the public sector equality duty, the family test and relevant duties of the Secretary of State under the NHS Act 2006. An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course. This will include the impact on both deprived and rural communities.