Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to encourage GP's to refer patients to community pharmacies.

Under the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework five-year deal 2019-2024, the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) was introduced in October 2019 and extended to general practices (GPs) in November 2020. Under the CPCS, NHS 111 can refer patients to community pharmacies for urgent medicines supply and advice and treatment for minor illnesses. GPs can refer patients for advice and treatment for minor illnesses. Over two million referrals have been made to the CPCS since its launch. NHS England has provided practice level support to GPs to support implementation of the referral pathway. As of March 2023, 80% of all practices are connected and able to refer with 85% of those already actively referring.

In September last year we announced the agreement with the sector for the remainder of the five-year deal, which includes a further one-off investment in the sector of £100 million. Under this agreement, urgent and emergency care settings will shortly be able to refer patients to a community pharmacist for minor illness consultation or for urgent medicine supply.