Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on delivering more sustainable funding for community pharmacies.

In 2019, the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement, with support from HM Treasury, agreed the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). The CPCF commits £2.592 billion annually to the sector. There are ongoing discussions with HM Treasury about the delivery of the CPCF.

The five-year deal sets out how it is planned to further integrate, community pharmacy into the National Health Service, delivering more clinical services and embedding their role in providing advice on medicines and preventing ill health.

NHS111 can now refer patients to a community pharmacist for minor illnesses or the urgent supply of a prescribed medicine. At the end of 2020, we extended this service to general practitioner surgeries, who can now also formally refer patients to community pharmacy for consultation. Earlier this year, we introduced the Discharge Medicines Service with referrals from hospitals to community pharmacies to support patients with their medicines following discharge. We expect to introduce more clinical services in community pharmacy to relieve pressure on other parts of the NHS and play a larger role in primary care provision.