A Labour government would introduce a ‘Community Pharmacy Prescribing Service,’ the party’s election manifesto has confirmed.  

The manifesto, which was published last week ahead of the July 4 general election, repeated the pledge first unveiled in a mission statement last year, stating: “We will create a Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service, granting more pharmacists independent prescribing rights where clinically appropriate.”

The manifesto does not outline the Labour Party’s approach to community pharmacy funding if elected but does confirm shadow health secretary Wes Streeting’s plans – referenced several times in the past year – to tilt resources away from hospitals and towards primary care.

The manifesto states: “The National Health Service needs to move to a Neighbourhood Health Service with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier. 

“To achieve this, we must over time shift resources to primary care and community services.” 

The Party has also outlined plans to overhaul primary care provision and address the GP appointment bottleneck faced by many patients: “Excellent primary care is the key to earlier diagnosis, but too often it is not possible to get an appointment, so Labour will reform the system.”

Alongside these commitments, the party plans to cut down hospital admissions through trialling ‘neighbourhood health centres’ bringing together existing services like family doctors, district nurses and mental health specialists. 

On workforce, the party committed itself to training up more health and care workers in the UK – including training “thousands” more GPs – rather than relying on overseas workers, and to publishing regular workforce planning reports. 

Responding to the manifesto, Community Pharmacy England chief executive Janet Morrison said she was “pleased” by the commitment to a prescribing service.

“It has been very encouraging to see the major political parties in England all referencing community pharmacy in their manifestos”. 

Company Chemists’ Association chief executive Malcolm Harrison said more information was needed on the proposed prescribing service, which he said “mut be underpinned by a robust roadmap to upskill existing pharmacists and ambitious NHS commissioning so the public can benefit from these new prescribing skills.”

Mr Harrison added: “Whoever wins the next election must confront, head on, the historic underfunding of the sector. A 30 per cent real terms cut in core funding since 2015 has led to the closure of nearly 1,200 pharmacies.”

The National Pharmacy Association also welcomed the proposed new service but said: “If Labour are serious about growing the role of pharmacies, they need to commit to a real terms funding increase.

“This will allow the network to stabilise and pharmacies to expand the services they can offer their communities.”