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The community pharmacy sector was given a ringing endorsement from Public Health England's chief executive, Duncan Selbie, who urged delegates at this year's Royal Pharmaceutical Society conference to €shout louder about what you are doing and what you can do to keep people out of hospital and keep them well€.

Championing the accessibility and convenience of pharmacy to the general public, particularly when compared to general practice, Mr Selbie said: €The public love you, I just wish the system did more€¦ We need to get better at recognising what you do.€ However, he advised the profession not to expect healthcare to stay the same, but instead called for pharmacists to €use what we've got to better effect€.

Good health didn't come from the amount spent on healthcare, but instead relied on economic prosperity such as people having jobs, homes and relationships with family and friends, declared Mr Selbie in his keynote address. In a separate session on public health and pharmacy, the chair of the pharmacy and public health forum said that the era of raising health standards €from above€, for example by improving sanitation and providing clean water, was a thing of the past.

Lots of small behavioural changes were needed, plus public education on what 'healthy' looks like and what an individual's current health status is, stated Jonathan McShane, who is also a cabinet member for health, social care and culture in Hackney. Alistair Murray, clinical lead at London's Green Light Pharmacy, said that such an approach worked best when local pharmacies worked together.

He admitted that this had been a steep learning curve, with contractors initially wary of each other, but said that customers had benefited from consistency across the pharmacies and that the pharmacy network was now not only thriving and supportive of each other, but worked well with other services, such as general practice and social care.