Commenting on the publication of the 10-year plan, CCA Chief Executive Malcolm Harrison said:
“The government’s ten-year health plan for the NHS sets out an ambitious vision for the health service in England. We are delighted that community pharmacy will clearly play an integral role in realising the ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’, brining care closer to peoples’ homes. We also fully support the ambition to rebalance the focus within the NHS between primary and secondary care.
The plan rightly recognises the value community pharmacy provides in delivering high-quality care, and points to a more clinical future, which the CCA wholeheartedly supports.
Community pharmacies have a track record of delivering vital preventative healthcare interventions at scale. We believe the sector is ready to take on an even bigger role in administering vaccinations and screening. Through the Pharmacy Vaccinations Development Group, the CCA has working to establish community pharmacy as the home of a range of NHS vaccines. We are delighted therefore to see that a new HPV vaccination service, administered from pharmacies, will help deliver on the government’s goal to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.
Moreover, pharmacies are well placed to increase access to weight-loss medicines and deliver wrap-around weight management care to patients.
Independent prescribing is a generational opportunity, and we wholeheartedly support plans to increase the role of prescribing pharmacists in the management of long-term conditions, complex medication regimes, and treatment of various risk factors.
The CCA looks forward to working with the government, the NHS and other stakeholders to develop the delivery plans that will bring about the changes this plan sets out”.