Pharmacy premises should be considered part of the NHS estate, PDA says

Pharmacy premises should be considered part of the NHS estate in order to support the delivery of a neighbourhood health service, a membership organisation has said.

The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) said that because pharmacies deliver commissioned NHS services such as the dispensing of prescriptions they should be considered part of the NHS estate.

In written evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s Delivering the neighbourhood health service: estates inquiry the PDA said that if the NHS funded premises improvements there was ‘definitely’ scope for pharmacies to support the delivery of neighbourhood healthcare.

It said that funding pharmacy premises improvements would likely be faster and more cost effective than investing in new sites.

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The document added: ‘If we consider GPs and pharmacies as part of the “NHS estate” – even though they are private contractors providing NHS services – and fund their premises improvements then there is definitely significant scope for them to support the delivery of the neighbourhood health service.’

Shifting more care out of hospitals into the community by creating a neighbourhood health service is a key pillar of the government’s 10-Year Health Plan.

The plan, published last year, said that community pharmacy will be ‘integral’ to the neighbourhood health service by having a greater role in the management of long-term conditions, complex medication regimes, and preventative care.

The government’s recently published neighbourhood health framework also set out that pharmacies will become a ‘first point of contact’ for more patients to reduce pressure on general practice.

The PDA said that to shift care towards a neighbourhood model it was essential not only to prevent further pharmacy closures but to improve the facilities in place as well.

Each pharmacy would need extra consulting rooms and extra workforce capacity to deliver more neighbourhood services, the PDA said.

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It added: ‘To shift healthcare towards the NeighHS [neighbourhood health service], it is essential not only to maintain the existing neighbourhood pharmacy infrastructure and prevent further closures, but to strengthen it by improving the facilities already in place.

‘Most community pharmacies operate from small retail premises, and many will require upgrades to meet the standards needed to deliver the expanded range of services envisaged in the 10YHP [10-Year Health Plan].

The Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry, launched in December, aims to assess what is needed from the NHS’s physical infrastructure to deliver the government’s vision of a neighbourhood health service.

In its evidence submission the PDA told the cross-party committee of MPs that achieving this shift will require careful consideration of workforce capability and the suitability of local physical premises.

It said that unlike other NHS estates which are paid for by the NHS and maintained by NHS facilities teams, community pharmacies rely entirely on private investment.

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Rent and business rates are shaped by market conditions, and all infrastructure such as IT systems, digital capability, and technological upgrades are funded directly by the pharmacy owner, it added.

‘It is crucial that any uplift in funding is ring-fenced so that additional resources are used specifically for improving premises, expanding clinical capacity, and supporting the recruitment of second pharmacists’ the association added.