§ 33. Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to provide assistance to community pharmacies; and if he will make a statement. [137669]
§ Ms StuartCommunity pharmacies providing services on behalf of the National Health Service receive fair and appropriate remuneration for those services. Pharmacies which dispense relatively few prescriptions, but which are more than one kilometre from the next pharmacy, may in addition qualify for subsidy payments under the Essential Small Pharmacies Scheme to bring their income from NHS services up to a target level.
Our future programme for community pharmacy is set out in "Pharmacy in the Future—Implementing the NHS Plan", a copy of which is in the Library.