The Darzi review must be followed by a ‘significant shift’ in resources towards community and primary care services, the Independent Association of Pharmacies (IPA) has said in a letter to the government.

A delegate of pharmacists representing the IPA took to Downing Street on Thursday to hand in a letter to the prime minister and health secretary following the publication of Lord Ara Darzi’s landmark report on the state of the NHS.

The review – which recognised the level of pharmacy closures across the country and warned that access could be at risk – called for a shift to spend more on community and preventive care to help relieve ‘congestion’ within acute hospital services.

Lord Darzi, a cancer surgeon and former Labour minister, concluded the NHS was in a ‘critical condition’ but could be saved with the right resources in the right places.

On Thursday, IPA chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck and a team of pharmacists travelled to No 10 Downing Street to stress that any reform of the health service ‘must place community pharmacy at its heart and provide sustainable and adequate funding to the sector’.

Dr Hannbeck said the report had shone a light on what those in the sector already knew – that community pharmacy ‘is essential to the health of this country, but at breaking point due underinvestment’.

‘We have travelled to 10 Downing Street on what is a pivotal moment for the future of the NHS and a critical day for our sector,’ she added.

‘It is a day that must be followed by a significant shift in resources toward primary care services.’

She warned that ‘chronic underfunding’ in the sector had led pharmacies to ‘being pushed to the brink’ – and pointed to ongoing delays with the 2024/25 pharmacy contract.

‘The positive news is, as Lord Darzi has confirmed, that this crisis can be tackled but action is needed urgently — starting with an end to the delays in negotiating a new pharmacy contract,’ said Dr Hannbeck.

‘If community pharmacies are properly funded, they can improve primary care, save the NHS money, and keep people out of hospital.

‘We can do so much more to help. With 1.6 million people walking through the doors of a community pharmacy every day, further closures would be a disaster to the health of our nation and to other areas of the NHS.’

In his report, Lord Darzi highlighted the accessibility of community pharmacy as ‘one of the great strengths of the health service in England’.

He said that ‘historically, the contract promoted a highly efficient distribution of pharmacies’, noting that ‘in contrast to many aspects of care, deprived communities are better served’.

But the report also noted that ‘pharmacies are now closing in significant numbers’.

‘While pharmacies have expanded the range of clinical services that they provide – such as blood pressure checks, prescription contraception, and minor illnesses – the total level of spending on the community pharmacy contract has fallen by 8%,’ the report said.

Lord Darzi said that community pharmacy had ‘huge potential’ to provide ‘even more value-added services for the NHS’, pointing towards the ‘notable successes’ of Pharmacy First.

But he warned ‘there is a very real risk that on current trajectory, community pharmacy will face similar access problems to general practice, with too few resources in the places where it is needed most’.

Separately, Lord Darzi also highlighted the ‘positive development’ of additional staff working in GP practices, including pharmacists.

Though his report emphasised that additional non-GP staff should 'be supplements, rather than substitutes to GPs'.

Since the report’s publication, community pharmacy leaders have been calling for urgent action to 'stop the rot' of pharmacy closures and to invest in the sector.

The government was approached for comment.