Almost three-quarters of UK adults see pharmacies as “essential” to the high street, a report commissioned by Boots has revealed.
Published today, the report’s survey of 2,015 people revealed that 74% feel pharmacies are vital to their local high street - rising to 81% among respondents aged 65 and older.
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The report, produced with Public First, also found that 30% of Brits “view access to healthcare as an important issue facing their local area”, while 77% said the distance to their closest provider “has a moderate to significant impact on their overall health”.
Over half (57%) of respondents said they “would use health screenings more often” if local services were more accessible, and 94% said that an increase in healthcare services on their high street would encourage them to visit other businesses there - a move which could boost the UK’s economy by £13 billion, Boots said.
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Respondents named vaccinations, long-term health condition management and weight loss management among the services they most wanted to see on the high street.
And the report estimated that expanding the services available under the Pharmacy First scheme would result in 14.6 million fewer GP appointments, “reducing strain on the NHS and improving patient outcomes”.
“Solve two problems in one”
Public First head of research Seb Wride said the local pharmacy “sits between two key political issues: public concern about the decline of their high street, and the challenge with accessing healthcare”.
“This means that pharmacies can help solve two problems in one, providing convenient access to in-person healthcare services, and bringing more shoppers back to the high street and boosting the local economy,” he added.
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And Boots senior vice president and managing director Anthony Hemmerdinger said community pharmacies were “uniquely placed” to meet the public’s desire “for convenient, accessible healthcare services in the heart of their communities.”
“As the government develops its High Streets strategy and delivers the NHS 10-year plan, there is a real opportunity to unlock the full potential of community pharmacy,” he added.
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It comes after Boots expanded its private in-store weight loss treatment service to an additional 44 stores in the UK last month.
And it follows an NHS England survey of more than 654,000 patients finding that 86.5% had used least one pharmacy service in the previous 12 months.
