Pharmacists should use the Call to Action consultation to help NHS England decide if there are too many pharmacies, the country's chief pharmaceutical officer has said.

There were too many pharmacies in some areas and this was an issue NHS England would "continue to have an interest in", Keith Ridge told the Sigma conference in Mexico yesterday (February 17).

Pharmacists and NHS England needed to think "radically and innovatively" as part of the consultation and this should include considering whether the number of pharmacies needed to be reduced, Mr Ridge told delegates via video link.  

How people go about establishing the right number and right location of pharmacies in the months and years to come is critical, says chief pharmaceutical officer Keith Ridge	More on Call to Action Newsblog: Grab a piece of the action Pharmacists urged to demand integration through Call to Action The NHS Call to Action: the pharmacy response
	"I know that view can be quite disturbing to people who have invested a lot of time, energy and money into their business. So how people go about establishing the right number and right location in the months and years to come is critical," he said.

The Call to Action consultation document asks stakeholders whether the right number of pharmacies are located in the right areas and Mr Ridge encouraged pharmacists to respond on this topic.

"My personal view is, yes, in some areas there may be too many. There's certainly a need to have a process in place to think carefully about the right number and right location," he added.

NPA chief executive Mike Holden agreed the consultation should be used as a way to decide if there were too many pharmacies, but the profession first had to agree what new roles it wanted to play in the health service.

"It's for us to shape that through the Call to Action. If we carry on doing what we are doing now then, yes, there may well be [too many]", he told C+D.

The consultation could "kick the profession into action" to prove why it needed the current number of pharmacies, he added.

Pharmacists have until March 18 to submit their response to the consultation by filling in an NHS England questionnaire.

Follow James Waldron on Twitter @CandDJamesW for all the latest news from the Sigma conference this week. 

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