The reformed NHS provides an opportunity for pharmacists to "stand up and be counted", NHS England deputy medical director Professor Steve Field told the C+D Summit.

Pharmacists have a "massive" opportunity to provide clinical leadership and address health inequalities, Professor Field told delegates as he set out his vision for the new NHS.

Delivering the key note speech at the summit, the Birmingham GP said his colleagues needed to "work more smartly" and in partnership with pharmacists so they had more time for patient consultations and to focus on more complex work.

There needed to be an environment where GPs and pharmacists were less competitive and worked more collaboratively together, he said.

"The majority of GPs are trying to do their best in a difficult situation where we are seeing more and more patients but we don't have more and more time," he said.

"We will need pharmacists to do more in order to help us out. We need to work in a more intelligent way," he added.

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Professor Field said that he understood that some people working within the NHS were feeling vulnerable and uncertain, but he was confident about the future of the health service.

"Let's unite. Let's get the NHS going again, feeling positive, moving forward putting patients right at the centre of everything that we do and I believe now that they [the reforms] are here there is an opportunity for us to make the NHS a better place."