Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential for community pharmacies to (a) deliver early identification of medical complaints and ongoing patient monitoring and (b) help reduce hospital admission rates.

We want a clinically focussed community pharmacy service that is better integrated with primary care and public health in line with the Five Year Forward View. This will help relieve the pressure on general practitioners and accident and emergency, ensure better use of medicines and better patient outcomes, and contribute to delivering seven-day health and care services.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, Dr Keith Ridge has commissioned an independent review of community pharmacy clinical services. The review is being led by Richard Murray, Director of Policy at The King’s Fund. The final recommendations will be considered as part of the development of clinical and cost effective patient care by pharmacists and their teams.

NHS England is also setting up a Pharmacy Integration Fund to support the development of clinical pharmacy practice in a wider range of primary care settings, resulting in a more integrated and effective National Health Service primary care patient pathway.