Pharmacy has the potential to improve public heath but more hard evidence is needed to prove the value of some services, primary care leaders reported yesterday (January 16).

There was insufficient evidence to prove that pharmacy-based EHC services reduced teenage pregnancy rates, or to support investment in weight management services and alcohol support services, said a task group set up by the government's pharmacy and public health forum.

However, there was good quality evidence to support community pharmacy's role in managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma. Smoking cessation services were also cost effective, the task group concluded, following an analysis of 20 review papers on pharmacy's involvement in public health services between 2002 and 2012.

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	The roll-out of healthy living pharmacies had confirmed widespread support for pharmacy as a setting for public health and prevention, the task group said in its first report since it was set up by the forum to evaluate and strengthen the evidence base for community pharmacy's contribution to public health.

But the evidence was not universally supportive for every type of intervention and there was a "clear requirement for new, good quality studies", it said.

The existing evidence should still encourage commissioners to seriously consider pharmacy as an effective mechanism for delivering these services, the task group added.

Public Health England chief knowledge officer and task group chair John Newton said there was a lot more to be done to prove the effectiveness of pharmacies delivering and promoting public health services.

"We need to understand how delivery of public health services in local pharmacies could contribute to improving health outcomes and reducing health inequalities in communities," he said.

This task group is one of six set up by the forum to bring together pharmacy and public health interests. It has already, in November 2013, persuaded the Department of Health to put £1.5 million towards funding new research into pharmacy's public health role.

The previous month, the forum recommended that commissioners needed to invest in "substantial contracts" to support community pharmacy's role in public health. Pharmacy was undervalued and needed more national and local recognition for the key part it could play in improving the public's health, the forum said.

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