Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 18 April 2024.
Peter Bottomley
Father of the House of Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of community pharmacy closures on other NHS services.
Peter Bottomley
Father of the House of Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pharmacies have closed in Worthing West Constituency since 2019; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of these closures on NHS primary care services in Worthing West constituency.
Andrea Leadsom
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
There were 19 pharmacies in Worthing West Constituency on 31 December 2023. Between 31 December 2019 and 31 December 2023, three pharmacies closed and no new pharmacies opened in Worthing West.
Access to pharmaceutical services remains good. 99 percent of the population in Worthing West live within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy. This exceeds the national average of 80 percent. In addition, residents of Worthing West can access distance selling pharmacies that operate nationally.
It is the role of local authorities in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards have regard to those assessments when commissioning services and where a pharmacy closure impacts on the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.
Yes4 people think so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
