The ongoing closure of community pharmacies across the country is a ‘grave concern’ that should be further investigated by MPs, Lord Ara Darzi has told an inquiry today.

The cancer surgeon and former Labour minister was this morning questioned by the Health and Social Care Committee on the findings of his major investigation into the state of the health service.

He reiterated his view from his report, published in September, that pharmacies could play a ‘significantly greater’ role in health care, but once again warned of the serious threat of closures.

‘There is a serious challenge when it comes to pharmacy at the moment. There is a lot of anxiety out there on pharmacies remaining,’ he told the committee.

‘A lot of these businesses are deciding to shut down.

‘I think that's something you should look into, because it is of grave concern.’

It was his view that ‘pharmacy could provide significantly greater both health and wellbeing, and health care’.

‘And it's an opportunity missed, because if we're really going to reduce the burden on our general practice and community services, pharmacy has a huge role to play,’ added Lord Darzi who noted this was already exampled through pharmacies’ work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lord Darzi agreed there was appetite in the sector to do more health prevention work, but stressed that pharmacies were ‘threatened’.

‘I've had a lot of people lobbying… but we need to make it happen,’ he said about the role of pharmacies in prevention.

His comments came during an evidence session held by the Health and Social Care Committee about the development of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan.

The plan is supported by the recent publication of Lord Darzi’s review which highlighted the overarching need to shift spending away from secondary care and towards community and primary care and prevention.

Also speaking during the session was Tom Kibasi, chairman of NHS community and mental health providers in North West London, who supported Lord Darzi with the review.

Mr Kibasi told the committee of cross-party MPs that he wanted to see community pharmacists ‘involved in managing complex regimes of medicines’ and ‘in an integrated team’ helping GPs or others to ‘get medication right’.

Responding to the comments made today, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), Dr Leyla Hannbeck, said: ‘The fact that someone of the stature and pivotal importance of Lord Darzi so obviously understands the level of jeopardy facing community pharmacy reinforces our primary lobbying message to government – they need to take urgent action on funding to avert a catastrophe.’

She stressed that the evidence given today was ‘surely proof positive that investing in community pharmacy will most certainly be a case of “investing to save”’.

Meanwhile, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), Paul Rees, agreed it was ‘good to see Lord Darzi sharing the NPA's concerns about the ongoing and unsustainable pressures facing community pharmacies’.

‘As Lord Darzi rightly recognises, pharmacies have the potential to play an expanded clinical role, taking pressure away from other parts of our health service and delivering excellent care to patients,’ he said.

‘However, this simply cannot happen whilst pharmacies are shutting in record numbers and many others feel they have no choice but to reduce their services due to a decade of underfunding.’

Mr Rees, who announced his upcoming departure from the NPA earlier this week, added: ‘If pharmacies are to reach their full potential, the government must urgently step in with a long-term funding increase and fix the broken contract between community pharmacy and the NHS.’

Royal Pharmaceutical Society English Board chair, Tase Oputu, said: ‘We welcome the recognition of the key role of community pharmacy and how pharmacists are crucial to supporting patient care and the best use of medicines.

‘With the success of Pharmacy First in supporting patients and more pharmacists practicing as independent prescribers, the Government, as it looks to develop a 10-Year NHS Plan, should reflect on how pharmacy is prioritised and funded across the system.’

She noted that the RPS’ evidence to the Darzi review highlighted the ‘increased demand’ on pharmacy teams and that ‘warnings of pharmacy closures must be addressed’.

Today’s inquiry session was the first of the newly formed Health and Social Care Committee since the change in government.

A report published last year by the previous committee found the government’s progress on its commitments to support pharmacy ‘require improvement’.

It concluded that the lack of a review of the funding model had negatively impacted on delivery of several commitments across pharmacy.

But at the time the Department of Health and Social Care rejected the committee’s claims that its commitment to review the community pharmacy model had not been met.