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Community Pharmacy Scotland has launched its 2026 Manifesto ahead of elections to the Scottish Parliament next year. It sets out its ambitions for how Scotland’s 1,200 community pharmacies can help transform the nation’s health.

The manifesto calls on policymakers to recognise the role that community pharmacy teams can play in preventing, detecting, and treating ill health. With 90 per cent of adults visiting a pharmacy at least once last year, and over 1.9 million people accessing NHS Pharmacy First Scotland in the last year alone, community pharmacy is uniquely positioned to tackle some of Scotland’s most urgent health challenges, says CPS.

It has identified four policy priorities where investment and commitment from the Scottish Government are needed:

• Preventing ill health: commissioning pharmacies to deliver a national NHS weight loss service and establishing a national substance use service with centralised funding.
• Detecting conditions earlier: establishing community pharmacy led diabetes and cardiovascular screening programmes to identify at-risk individuals sooner.
• Treating more patients in the community: increasing investment in NHS Pharmacy First Scotland, extending prescribing capability, and commissioning a suite of women’s health services.
• Building the right infrastructure: investing in digital systems/ IT infrastructure, connectivity, and paperless dispensing to enable seamless integration with the wider NHS.

Additionally CPS is calling for the establishment of a national substance use service and centralised funding, ensuring that pharmacies are uniformly commissioned to focus on the care and interventions that best protect the most vulnerable people.

It also believes that better digital infrastructure and information sharing is essential in achieving a shift from secondary to primary care interventions, saying these digital requirements must be defined and delivered as a priority.

Commenting on the launch, CPS chief executive Matt Barclay said: “With the right investment, pharmacy teams can take on roles in tackling obesity, reducing drug deaths, preventing long-term conditions, and supporting women’s health.

“This manifesto is our call to action for all political parties to recognise the power of community pharmacy and work with us to delivering a healthier Scotland.”