Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his speech of 19 June 2015, on A new deal for general practice, and the announcement in that speech of a £7.5 million fund to support community pharmacists with training and tools, in what ways he expects the new fund to support community pharmacists will be used to (a) improve access to health care and (b) improve linked working between pharmacists and GPs.

Under the plans announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health, on 19 June 2015, up to £7.5 million in funding is being provided by NHS England to support all community pharmacies in England to implement access to the Summary Care Record (SCR). This includes ensuring adequate training, and that all necessary information governance and security requirements are in place.

Wider implementation of the SCR within community pharmacy across England will begin from autumn 2015. The plan will complete delivery to all 11,647 pharmacies and this is expected to be completed by autumn 2017.

Access to the SCR means that, with their consent, patients can receive even more support from authorised health professionals working in community pharmacy. This could be where a patient is unable to access their repeat medicines and needs emergency supplies or is seeking advice from the pharmacy - and access to their SCR will help the health professional give them advice about the most effective course of action. It may also help minimise the risk of prescribing errors.