Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the (a) support and (b) training provided to pharmacy staff on recognising the symptoms of (i) Crohn’s Disease, (ii) Ulcerative Colitis and (iii) other conditions.

Pharmacy professionals are required to revalidate annually with the General Pharmaceutical Council by submitting records to show how they have carried out and recorded revalidation activities demonstrating that their clinical knowledge and skills are up to date, suitably addressing any gaps in knowledge that are identified. This is to ensure they continue to demonstrate how they provide the safe and effective care that patients and the public expect, as set out in the standards for pharmacy professionals.

To support this, the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education offers a wide range of training courses to support pharmacy professionals in their continued professional development, including a Gastro-Intestinal: inflammatory bowel disease e-learning to support healthcare professionals to provide effective care for patients.

The clinical role of pharmacy professionals is set to expand over the coming years; the Pharmacy Integration Programme is also investing a further £15.9 million over the next four years to support the expansion of frontline pharmacy staff in primary and community care, to provide increased access to educational, prescribing and clinical training and development opportunities for post-registration pharmacy professionals to meet the needs of patients and local communities. In 2021, the General Pharmaceutical Council introduced new professional standards for initial education and training. This will ensure that the next generation of pharmacists are equipped with essential clinical skills, and from 2026 they will be able to prescribe medicines at the point of registration within the bounds of their clinical competence.