The Government should commission services from GPs and community pharmacies in a more linked-up fashion to stop the two sectors fighting for the same public funds, Community Pharmacy England has told the senior doctor charged with investigating NHS performance. 

In a letter to Lord Ara Darzi to support the negotiator’s submission to his Labour-commissioned review, CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said her organisation believes “that commissioning of GP and community pharmacy services could be better aligned to focus on integration, collaboration and shared goals rather than competing for resources”.

CPE’s submission to the Darzi review outlines a number of proposed new services and expansions of current services for which it is currently making economic cases linked to HM Treasury ‘green book’ that sets out guidance on Government spending decisions. 

‘High priority’ services picked out by CPE include expanding Pharmacy First to include the supply of OTC medicines to low-income individuals and an ‘open access’ smoking/nicotine cessation service, as well as an emergency contraception service.

‘Medium priority’ pipeline services include allowing community pharmacists to carry out structured medication reviews, amending prescribing and deprescribing, a ‘menopause advice’ service and adding new conditions to Pharmacy First like eczema and acne.

Ms Morrison said CPE welcomes the Government’s ambition to launch a ‘neighbourhood health service' and believes pharmacies should be “at the centre of delivery,” but warned that this will require a serious review of the current funding arrangements.

Ms Morrison told Lord Darzi that pharmacies “have never been so busy” while funding “has declined sharply, and that the “overall proportion of NHS funding spent on community pharmacy requires an urgent uplift to stabilise the sector given the 30 per cent real-terms reduction that has taken place since 2015”.

CPE’s submission to the Darzi review warns that a 48 per cent funding uplift to the current £2.592bn global sum is needed to match inflation and the increase in activities being undertaken by England’s pharmacies, and that the present high rate of pharmacy closures is disproportionately impacting more deprived communities.

In a public statement, Ms Morrison added: “We hope that the Darzi review will foster a realistic and honest conversation about how to improve the outlook for community pharmacy.

“CPE will continue to input into the Government’s work to better understand and overcome the challenges facing the NHS; this will include feeding into the development of a 10-year plan and the upcoming spending review.”