The Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) today (September 11) published proposals for community pharmacy to “become a natural home for patients to access routine primary care services in England”.
The move would “provide an additional 51 million primary care appointments annually, allowing general practice to focus on more complex primary care needs” while continuing as “the anchor of primary care”, it said.
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Published as part of the trade association’s 2025 prospectus, the proposals set out “an ambitious roadmap for community pharmacy to take on an even bigger role in delivering urgent care, managing long-term conditions and preventing ill-health”, it added.
It comes as the government this week said that GPs will serve as the “cornerstone” of England’s new “neighbourhood health teams” as it revealed the locations of the first 43 hubs.
“Greater flexibilities”
The proposals include:
- Making Pharmacy First a “walk-in service” and expanding the range of conditions it covers to include headaches and migraines, “simple” acne treatment, eye infections, lower respiratory chest infections and “simple” back pain
- Moving to a pharmacy “prescribing service”, as pledged in the Labour party’s election manifesto
- Empowering pharmacists to “initiate the supply of medicines for treating hypertension”
- Allowing pharmacists to “screen and initiate treatment for most routine long-term conditions”
- Commissioning “all NHS vaccination programmes from community pharmacy” including flu, COVID-19, human papillomavirus (HPV), shingles and pneumococcal vaccines
- Commissioning a “wrap-around NHS weight loss service” in community pharmacies
- Commissioning a “walk-in smoking cessation service” from pharmacies
- Allowing pharmacists “greater flexibilities to substitute medicines during shortages” and the ability to change medicines “to align with prescribing guidelines” where necessary
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According to the CCA, these proposals “align closely with the role envisaged of community pharmacy” in the 10-year health plan.
But it stressed that these changes would not be possible without “funding to address historic deficits” and “investment in the sector to commission additional workload and new services”.
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Businesses must be encouraged to “invest in their premises [and provide] bigger pharmacies and more consultation rooms for patients”, it said.
And the trade association added that pharmacies must have access to “phlebotomy capacity” to ensure they can “provide a wider array of clinical services”.
“Bold proposals”
CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison stressed that “with the right investment there is so much more community pharmacies could do”.
“By taking forward these bold proposals, pharmacies could free up 51 million GP appointments each year, allowing GPs to focus on patients with more complex care needs,” he said.
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It comes after an NHS England (NHSE) official acknowledged in June that the role of community pharmacy is “increasingly emerging” and needs to “grow”.
And the CCA called for community pharmacies to play a greater role in delivering NHS vaccines in February, noting it would “drive uptake” and “prevent ill health”.
