Pharmacists must tackle the perception that they are "hidden away" in their dispensaries to embrace the opportunities of the new NHS, pharmacist and public health expert at NHS England Fiona Harris has warned.

Ms Harris told delegates at the Avicenna conference on Tuesday (May 28) that, as the NHS underwent rapid change, pharmacists needed to trust their teams and push themselves "out front" into the centre of their communities.

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	Ms Harris, head of public health commissioning at NHS England's Surrey and Sussex area team, stressed that there were huge opportunities for pharmacists to provide enhanced services in the new NHS structure, but they needed to convince commissioners that they could deliver the best possible outcomes.

"Everybody recording a good MUR is a really good start but there are other things we can do," she said. "We need to understand why patients don't take statins and help change their beliefs and attitudes. That is the really important part of their care and that's what is going to give the best outcomes."

Ms Harris cited healthy living pharmacies as an area that pharmacists should focus on, but stressed they were not "the end of the journey".

She presented delegates with a list of services that pharmacists should focus on and explained which commissioners they needed to approach. 

Avicenna CEO Salim Jetha opened the conference in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday by urging delegates to move fast to embrace the opportunities in the reformed NHS.

He argued that pharmacists were doing a good job, but needed to be better at bragging about their successes. Pharmacy needed to shout louder about MURs in particular, he said, to demonstrate their value to the public and to commissioners.  

Fiona Harris: what pharmacists should be doing

Working with local government on:

Healthy living pharmacy

Behavioural change – motivational interviewing/ health champions

Sexual health services – EHC/chlamydia screening

Social care

Weight management

Working with NHS England on:

Immunisation – getting involved in catch-up campaigns aimed at hard-to-reach groups

Screening – health promotion and getting involved in provision

Working with clinical commissioning groups on:

Medicine management initiatives – MURS/NMR/inhaler techniques/strength optimisation/support concordance

Facilitating discharge from hospital

Reducing medicine waste

Working with Public Health England on:

Reducing antibiotic use

Vaccination centres

Mass treatment centres

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