The NHS reforms are still hampering the sector's public health potential, Pharmacy Voice has said.

The 2013 restructuring of the health service created a "significantly more fragmented" commissioning landscape, with "unwarranted variation" in local services, the lobbying group told MPs in its submission to a parliamentary inquiry into public health.

The changes – which put local commissioning into the hands of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and local authorities – meant that more than 350 organisations either commission or influence pharmacy services, Pharmacy Voice said last week (December 4).

The "inherent complexity" of the reforms made it difficult for pharmacists to forge relationships with commissioners and other primary health professionals, Pharmacy Voice said.

This had resulted in a "postcode lottery" for services, which "undermines public confidence" in the sector, it said.

Number of pharmacy services "far from optimal"

"[The changes] have hindered community pharmacy's ability to fully realise its potential as a key provider of public health services in some areas. The number of locally commissioned services is far from optimal," it said.

Forthcoming cuts to public health budgets – amounting to £200 million over the next year – will only "exacerbate" the situation, it stressed.

Pharmacy Voice called for national public health services to be commissioned, as well as the creation of national specifications for local services. There should be a "statutory responsibility" for community pharmacists to be represented on local authorities' health and wellbeing boards, it added.

Labour peer and shadow health minister Lord Hunt told C+D last month that the reforms remain a barrier to community pharmacy's potential being properly recognised.

Have you managed to build relationships with public health commissioners in your area? 

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