Devon LPC has secured a pharmacy seat on a local health and wellbeing board being established as part of NHS reforms.

Within the new NHS, the boards will be responsible for defining local health needs, and this week the government said they would have powers to scrutinise local commissioning decisions.

The decision by Torbay health and wellbeing board would put pharmacy "at the decision-making level" when community services were being discussed and commissioned in the future, said Devon LPC chief officer Sue Taylor.

The appointment followed letters and meetings at which the LPC explained how community pharmacy could contribute to the board and to public health and highlighted the importance of the local pharmaceutical needs assessment, she explained.

"We highlighted the importance of the PNA and the need to have an expert at the table, and we promoted community pharmacy as a community-based asset," she told C+D.

"We were really pleased that they grasped that and there didn't seem any question about whether we should be on the board," she added.

Ms Taylor suggested that other LPCs shouldn't "wait to be asked" to join the local boards. "You've got to keep pushing at the door – at the moment it's wide open, but if people leave it until the boards have been established, it will be really difficult to get on," she said.