Making better use of community pharmacies could help to ease the burden of winter pressures on healthcare services, MPs have claimed. A report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Care and Public Health has revealed that GPs saw 340 million patients last winter – 40 million more than they did five years ago – while A&E attendances have risen by one million to reach 21.7 million.

Launching the report, Sir Kevin Barron, MP for Rother Valley and co-chair of the APPG, said that community pharmacies were “well placed to help reduce workload in general practice and free-up capacity in A&E.“ He urged clinical commissioning groups to “involve pharmacy in local healthcare planning so that their skills can be utilised to support local people look after their health”.