Jeremy Quin, the Member of Parliament for Horsham, met Minister Andrea Leadsom on Monday 8th January to discuss pharmacy services in Horsham and the surrounding area.
Jeremy said “I am very aware of the difficulty many residents are facing when getting prescriptions fulfilled in a timely manner. I recognise the worry and frustration this causes and I am absolutely determined to ensure our local services are functioning properly.
“I held a Pharmacy Roundtable earlier in the year and I was very grateful to the many local pharmacists who attended and shared with me both the challenges the sector is facing but also where they are keen for the sector to do more to support patients and our wider NHS.
“Following that Roundtable I wrote to the Minister and I was pleased to be able to follow that up with a face to face meeting, the Minister has taken action on a number of the points which will have a real benefit to pharmacists.”
A key point pharmacists raised with Jeremy is that they have limited access to patient records, making it difficult to effectively prescribe for patients. From early this year, community pharmacists will be able to access patients’ records, view previous interventions and results. Digital referrals from general practice to community pharmacists will also be enabled. This will create far more interoperability between pharmacists and the wider NHS.
The Minister also advised Jeremy that the Government is committed to giving community pharmacy contractors more choice about how they deploy their staff and release pharmacists’ time for more patient-facing clinical services. The pharmacists Jeremy spoke to were keen for pharmacy technicians to play a greater role in the dispensary which the Minister agreed was part of an important package of measures to maximise the contribution pharmacy teams can make to help patients and the NHS.
Mr Quin is also following up with specific pharmacies locally where problems have been reported. He is very grateful to the number of residents who have contacted him to share their own experience of getting medication locally. Their insights were incredibly useful for the meeting with the Minister. Residents who can email him directly on jeremy.quin.mp@parliament.uk or participate on his survey on our local NHS which has a specific section on pharmacy services which can be completed online at: https://www.jeremyquin.com/nhs-survey