Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many jobs he estimates will be lost in (a) Welwyn Hatfield constituency and (b) England in the 12 months after the discussion to reduce spending on community pharmacies.

Our reforms are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.

In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the National Health Service to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a vital part of the NHS and can play an even greater role. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of community pharmacy services including public access to medicines.

Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we have a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.