If properly funded, community pharmacy could support the government's intention to move care to the community, sector leaders have stressed in their responses to the the NHS 10-year plan consultation.

But Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison has since expressed disappointment about the government's health 'milestone', announced yesterday, which focused exclusively on secondary care.

'This Parliament, our health milestone is to end hospital backlogs by delivering our ambitious milestone of meeting the NHS standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to start consultant-led treatment of non-urgent health conditions,' the Labour government said.

In response, Ms Morrison wrote on a post on LinkedIn that the target of reducing hospital waiting lists was 'so reductive a measure of the health mission' that it made the three shifts previously proposed by the government - hospital to community; treatment to community; analogue to digital - 'meaningless'.

Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), told The Pharmacist today: 'It is good to see the government recommitting their desire to tackle health backlogs and as well as their record investment in the NHS delivered at the Budget.

'However, pharmacies will be eagerly awaiting to see whether any of this investment will make its way to community pharmacy, which has faced 40 per cent funding cuts coupled with record number of closures in recent years.

'The government must end the uncertainty for pharmacies and urgently get round the table to negotiate this year's funding settlement, which is already 8 months late.'

And Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), said that while it was 'good to see the PM’s warm words outlining his intentions to better the health service', the community pharmacy sector needed 'immediate action'.

'If invested in community pharmacy can be a big solution to our NHS challenges as it brings in accessibility and convenience as well as great well-documented expertise,' she added.

Use pharmacies to move care into communities

Sector responses to the government's consultation on the 10-year-plan for the NHS focused on the opportunity to utilise community pharmacies to deliver a 'neighbourhood health service' at the heart of local communities.

In its response, the IPA said: 'Community pharmacies sit at the heart of communities and are one of the best-placed healthcare providers.'

'We have the greatest potential to shift care to the community, but our current funding mechanism holds us back,' the IPA added.

And it called on the government to 'address the funding balance between primary care and hospitals and transition to a community-focused NHS with primary care at its core, reducing reliance on hospitals'.

'The community pharmacy can become the accessible link point between the network of organisations forming the service,' it proposed.

The IPA also said funding mechanisms should be aligned 'with the actual costs of providing care keep pace with operating costs'.

And in the longer term, pharmacies should be incentivised to deliver patient-facing services, and be equipped with 'advanced tools to enhance efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and enable early diagnosis of illnesses', the IPA said.

CPE also highlighted the 'existing network of 10,000+ community pharmacies, which are found at the heart of neighbourhoods' in its response.

'Pharmacists possess the necessary clinical skills to play a larger role and the government and NHS should seek to fully utilise their potential,' the negotiator said.

And the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said: 'Community pharmacies already provide a national network of neighbourhood health centres, dispensing a billion prescriptions a year and seeing 1.6m patients a day.'

Expand Pharmacy First and other services

Sector respondents highlighted the need to expand Pharmacy First and other community pharmacy services to provide accessible care, particularly in more deprived communities.

The NPA called for a local healthy living and prevention support service, particularly focused in areas of deprivation.

And recommendations were made by several respondents for a national Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) service, a national smoking cessation service, and a greater role for community pharmacies in vaccinations and screening.

In particular, services that made use of pharmacists' prescribing skills - and prescribing support for new and existing pharmacists - was needed, respondents said.

The NPA said the NHS 10-year plan 'should commit to an independent prescriber being available in every community pharmacy in England over the next five years'.

And the Company Chemist's Association (CCA) called for the introduction of services in community pharmacies 'that fully utilise independent prescribing', including long term condition management and deprescribing.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) also said the NHS needed to 'make better use of pharmacist skills'.

'For example, by ICBs commissioning pharmacists to provide pharmaceutical care in community settings facilitated by better connected IT within community pharmacies. This would accommodate multiple pharmacists providing both appointment-based clinics and opportunistic interventions,' a spokesperson told The Pharmacist.

Meanwhile, Tase Oputu, England board chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) said the RPS had focused on 'the critical role of medicines in supporting patient care and the prevention of disease' in its response.

'We’ve called for greater recognition of pharmacists’ contributions across the health service, particularly in their prescribing roles, which help improve patient care and ease pressures on other parts of the NHS.

'We emphasised the need for a more connected NHS to ensure seamless care, as well as sustained investment in the pharmacy workforce across all sectors to meet growing healthcare demands,' she told The Pharmacist.