MPs from a cross-party group that promotes the contribution pharmacists can make to the public’s health have written a wish list of what they want the next UK government to achieve within its first 100 days.
The list includes a commitment to develop a national pharmacy-led minor ailments service, the introduction of a national influenza immunisation programme run by community pharmacies and an expansion of the medicines use review service.
The national programmes should all be paid for according to a new outcomes-based funding model so that they are sustainable and prove good value for money, according to the All-Party Pharmacy Group MPs.
The incoming government should also carry out an analysis into the extent to which clinical commissioning groups and local council health boards consider pharmacy when reaching decisions.
The MPs want the next government to grant pharmacists read and write access to the electronic summary care record for NHS patients. They are also asking for the creation of four national pharmacy service templates for commissioners looking to buy smoking cessation, weight management, sexual health and alcohol management services.
And the next government should create a national community pharmacy post-discharge care plan for patients leaving hospital, they say.
Other items on the wish list include a call to continue to pursue the decriminalisation of dispensing errors.
