PSNC has published a new five-point plan for pharmacy outlining services it believes the NHS should commission in order to harness the potential of community pharmacy.

With the ultimate aim of transforming the delivery of primary care, PSNC states that the recommendations in the Five Point Forward Plan would give momentum and focus to the development of community pharmacy services, as well as reducing pressure on GPs and urgent care services, improving convenience for patients and releasing substantial savings for the NHS.

The five points are:

1. Give patients easier access to urgent medication through an urgent supply service so community pharmacists can supply routine NHS prescription medication at weekends and out of hours if patients run out.
2. Offer people advice at their own convenience, using pharmacy as a first port of call where pharmacists can offer treatment or referral as needed.
3. Care for frail and older people and their carers, at their homes if necessary, to ensure they are using their medicines properly and safely, particularly after hospital discharge.
4. Support people to manage their long-term conditions more effectively by monitoring those with simple hypertension and asthma to help them manage their own health.
5. Help identify people with undiagnosed respiratory disease by providing risk assessments for people potentially at risk of having or developing COPD, followed by advice and stop smoking support or referral.

PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe said: “We want to state very clearly and loudly how community pharmacy can step up its contribution to primary care, in a short timescale. Our objective is principally to get ministers and NHS England to address these in our next round of negotiations, and to focus on the opportunities on offer.

“The five points are all in PSNC's Vision, but following the disappointment with the minor ailments advice service we decided we needed to articulate very clearly and specifically what community pharmacy service expansion can do and the value it brings to patients and the NHS.”

Read the plan in full and find out more information at psnc.org.uk/5pointplan