Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of his proposals for the future of community pharmacy on care for vulnerable patients.

Alistair Burt

Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service. We want to see a high quality community pharmacy service that is properly integrated into primary care and public health in line with the Five Year Forward View.

We want to make pharmacists a pivotal part of primary care for all patient groups, including the elderly and vulnerable, by increasing the number who bring their skills to general practitioner (GP) practices, care homes, urgent care and public health settings. We have consulted on how best to introduce a Pharmacy Integration Fund to help transform how pharmacists, their teams and community pharmacy will operate in the NHS, bringing clear benefits to patients and the public.

Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive. We are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

The community pharmacy proposals for 2016/17 and beyond, on which we have consulted, 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.