Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, published on 9 May 2023, what steps his Department is taking to improve IT connectivity between community pharmacies and other parts of the NHS.

The Delivery plan commits to significantly improving the digital infrastructure between general practice and community pharmacy by introducing interoperable digital solutions to support secure communications between general practice and community pharmacies. Community pharmacists will be able to access patients’ records, view previous interventions and results, and populate those records with standardised messages related to the services provided in community pharmacy and referrals will be enabled from general practice to community pharmacies and between pharmacies.