Key Summay
- MPs called community pharmacies lifelines for local healthcare.
- Pharmacies help patients easily access care and reduce pressure on GPs and hospitals.
- MPs warned funding pressures and closures could threaten these services.
Several MPs, recently lauded the role played by community pharmacies in the healthcare sector and also expressed concern regarding the recent closures of pharmacies.
During a Parliamentary debate, which focussed on ‘Healthcare in Rural Areas’, on Thursday (5), the MPs, cutting across party lines, said that while community pharmacies are accessible and help ease pressure on GPs and hospitals, and acknowledged that they are under tremendous strain.
The Labour MP for North West Leicestershire, Amanda Hock, called communities pharmacies “lifelines” and appreciated the medicine reviews and their preventative advice, while Katie Lam, the Conservative MP for Weald of Kent, called Pharmacy First a “superb initiative”.
However, the MPs warned that the challenges faced by pharmacies like underfunding, medicine shortages, etc., could affect patient health.
Zoe Long, director of Communications, Corporate and Public Affairs at Community Pharmacy England, said the Parliamentary debate “has rightly recognised that pharmacies provide vital access to healthcare in their communities, but also served to highlight how long-term underfunding is putting critical services at risk. It is good to see this kind of cross-party support for the sector continuing.”
