Pharmacists are critical to the delivery of public health but are not recognised in the way they should be, England's public health minister Anna Soubry has said.

Speaking to a forum on clinical commissioning groups and health and wellbeing boards last week, Ms Soubry said that pharmacists are at the "heart of public health" and should be saluted.

When asked why health and wellbeing boards were not opening their doors to pharmacists, she said there was "no good reason" why pharmacists should not sit on the boards, which will provide the strategy for local authorities to make commissioning decisions from April 1.

"They are there in every single community. They are open at the most brilliant hours, sometimes better than GP surgeries" Anna Soubry public health minister

More on public health Health and wellbeing boards explained Public Health England explained Public health minister 'misguided' in linking       obesity with deprivation

But she insisted that the government had given local authorities the responsibility to decide whether to ask pharmacists to sit on their health and wellbeing boards rather than provide a "never-ending list" of who they must include. "There is no good reason... not to put somebody from pharmacy onto a health and wellbeing board if that's what they want to do," she told the forum, organised by the diabetes charity Silver Star.

"People often forget pharmacists are true professionals. They give advice, they know what they are talking about and they are an excellent opportunity to do some really great public health work," Ms Soubry added.

"They are there in every single community. They are open at the most brilliant hours, sometimes better than GP surgeries," she said.

Earlier this month, interim chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners Charles Alessi said that health and wellbeing boards were the most important place for pharmacists to make their presence felt in the new NHS.

See C+D's guide to health and wellbeing boards for more details of how the boards will be involved in commissioning services in your area.