The Conservative party has pledged to gather pharmacists' views on its future healthcare policies ahead of next year's general election.

The party talked "regularly" with sector representatives and would engage with pharmacists "as a matter of routine" before it published its manifesto, pharmacy minister Earl Howe told C+D in an exclusive interview on Friday (August 1).

Earl Howe insisted that Jeremy Hunts was "totally engaged" with pharmacy, despite the health secretary coming under fire for failing to mention the sector in a speech on commissioning in June and holding no official meetings with pharmacy representatives in his first six months in office.

Mr Hunt had since held "numerous" meetings with pharmacy representatives and was "extremely keen" for the sector to be granted online access to patient records, Earl Howe said at a ground-cutting ceremony for the Jhoots Pharmacy headquarters in Walsall.

"If [Mr Hunt] was standing here, he would re-emphasise that even more strongly," Earl Howe said.

In June, the Independent Pharmacy Federation announced plans to meet with Labour party representatives to help shape pharmacy's role in the party's future health policy, and Earl Howe pledged that his party would "most certainly" hold similar meetings with the sector.

"Pharmacy is centre-stage in the way primary care is developing and the potential for pharmacy [to] deliver public health benefits as well as services is well acknowledged by all," he said.

But there was still a "way to go" before the sector was given the recognition it deserved, he conceded.

Mr Hunt vowed to push for pharmacists to gain access to patient records in January.

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