Pharmacies: Range of Work

Health and Social Care – in the House of Commons at on 8 June 2021.

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Photo of Laurence Robertson Laurence Robertson Conservative, Tewkesbury

What steps he is taking to increase the range of work carried out by pharmacies.

Photo of Jo Churchill Jo Churchill The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

The pandemic has proven to the public how vital our highly skilled pharmacy teams are in supporting their communities. Pharmacies have massive potential to build on the new services they are already delivering, and we will continue to look at how we can use them further.

Photo of Laurence Robertson Laurence Robertson Conservative, Tewkesbury

I thank the Minister for that answer. Can we also make sure that the public are aware of everything that pharmacies can do, so that they can use them to take pressure off GPs?

Photo of Jo Churchill Jo Churchill The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

Indeed we can. I would be honoured to work with my hon. Friend to do that so that people think “pharmacy first”. Pharmacies are delivering lateral flow devices into our communities; 500 of them have stood up to be vaccination sites; and we can now refer from NHS 111 and GPs into community pharmacies for the supply of prescribed medicine and for minor illnesses. We need our pharmacies to show their skill base; they are a highly skilled group that we should all be asking to do more and celebrating.