Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the potential savings which community pharmacies can make to clinical commissioning group budgets.

One of the aims of the community pharmacy reforms is to encourage much greater use of community pharmacy as a first port of call by fully integrating it with the rest of the National Health Service, so that more people benefit from the skills of pharmacists and their teams – including in general practitioner (GP) practices, urgent care hubs and out of hours services. It will also relieve pressure on other parts of the NHS, by embedding community pharmacy into the urgent care pathway.

The new Pharmacy Integration Fund will drive the greater use of community pharmacy, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in new, integrated local care models. This will improve access for patients, relieve the pressure on GPs and accident and emergency departments, ensure optimal use of medicines, drive better value, improve patient outcomes, and contribute to delivering a seven day health and care service.