Commissioners should use pharmacy's presence in deprived areas to target the country's poorest patients, an academic has said.

A study by Durham University that found nearly everyone in England's most deprived areas could walk to a pharmacy within 20 minutes proved the sector was in a "unique" position to care for at-risk patients, the study's lead author told C+D.

The report, published yesterday (August 13), found that almost 100 per cent of the populations in areas of the highest deprivation lived within walking distance of a pharmacy, higher than the national average of 89 per cent.

Adam Todd, the study's lead author and lecturer in pharmacy practice at Durham University, said the report was "a starting point" for commissioners and policy makers to ensure these populations had access to the same level of pharmacy services across the country.

"We know people in the most deprived areas die of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers [and] liver problems. So it's a real opportunity to start developing services through community pharmacies to target these at-risk patients," he told C+D.

The report's authors said it was "very timely" that the findings were published while NHS England was deciding pharmacy's role within its primary care strategy, due to be published in the autumn.

Pharmacy's accessibility had "major implications" for commissioning health services and meant the sector could play an important role in reducing inequalities for "priority" public health conditions in deprived areas, they said.

The authors called for more research into how accessible community pharmacy was perceived to be by the public and whether this perception was affected by the level of deprivation.

In May, the Department of Health said community pharmacies were ideally placed to increase access to primary care, especially in deprived areas

	How should pharmacy be used to target deprived areas in the upcoming primary care strategy?