Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make a comparative assessment of the potential merits of (a) allowing pharmacists to undertake wider health assessments and (b) using a multi-disciplinary scheme.

An increasing number of pharmacists are already performing wider health assessments as part of a multidisciplinary team in general practice. Many of these pharmacists are also independent prescribers.

In community pharmacy, pharmacists continue to undertake health assessments, for example for minor illnesses, blood pressure checks and oral contraception and from early next year as part of Pharmacy First.

We are building on this growing role with pilots led by NHS England and integrated care boards that test how independent prescribing could work in community pharmacy to inform further expansion of clinical services in community pharmacy.

We are also working to provide community pharmacies, from early next year, with additional access to relevant clinical information from the general practice’s (GP) record and share structured updates quickly and efficiently following a pharmacy consultation back into the GP patient record. This will support further integration of pharmaceutical services across settings.