The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has published a five-point plan detailing ways in which community pharmacy could aid the NHS in coping with high levels of demand and financial constraints. The five points look at areas where patient provision stands to be improved, the specific ways in which pharmacy can help and how health services can benefit.

The guidelines are:

1. Give patients easier access to urgent medication by commissioning an urgent supply service which would be available at weekends and out of hours. The PSNC claims that this could save around £45 per patient.
2. Offer people advice at their own convenience, using pharmacy as a first port of call – drawing on community pharmacy expertise can help patients get the help they need more quickly.
3. Care for frail and older people by assisting them to use medicines correctly – this could involve home visits by a pharmacist. The PSNC says that this could help prevent health complications and save around £2,000 per hospital admission.
4. Support people to manage their long-term conditions more effectively e.g. people with asthma or simple hypertension, easing GP workloads.
5. Help identify people with undiagnosed respiratory disease by providing risk assessment in pharmacies, followed by advice, referral and/or stop smoking support.

PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe said: “We want to state very clearly and loudly how community pharmacy can step up its contribution to primary care, in a short timescale. Our objective is principally to get ministers and NHS England to address these in our next round of negotiations, and to focus on the opportunities on offer.

“The five points are all in PSNC’s Vision, but following the disappointment with the minor ailments advice service we decided we needed to articulate very clearly and specifically what community pharmacy service expansion can do and the value it brings to patients and the NHS.”