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<p>Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play
an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for
the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the
NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS
primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges.
The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality
of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies
upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction
of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies
compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the
local population.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern
system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public
health services to the benefit of patients and the public.</p><p> </p><p>Our proposals
are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies
and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our
aim. We are not able to assess which pharmacies may close or the number of people
who may lose their jobs, because we do not know the financial viability of individual
businesses or the extent to which they derive income from services commissioned locally
by the NHS or local authorities or have non-NHS related income.</p><p> </p><p>We are
consulting the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and others, including
patient and public representatives on our proposals. An impact assessment will be
completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
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