Community Pharmacists (Hansard, 3 April 2003)

§ Mr. Lammy

Community pharmacists play a vital role in the national health service and in local communities more generally. They dispense around 600 million NHS prescriptions a year. They provide advice on minor ailments and sell a wide range of medicines which help people take care of their own health. They are increasingly involved in a range of additional services, including detailed advice to patients and to doctors on the use of medicines, smoking cessation schemes, and supervised consumption of methadone by drug misusers. The first repeat dispensing schemes, under which community pharmacists will supply repeat medication for up to a year, will begin shortly.

Later this year, the first pharmacists will become supplementary prescribers. We want to see an increased role for community pharmacists in providing services to NHS patients and we are currently developing a new contractual framework to make that happen. We also want to improve access and choice, so that more NHS patients can use the skills of community pharmacists for advice, information and services.