This week in Parliament w/c 18th November

Welcome back to the APPG on Pharmacy weekly Parliamentary update. Set out below is a summary of key parliamentary developments in community pharmacy from the week just gone.

Key Parliamentary Activity

Health and Social Care Select Committee - Independent investigation of the NHS in England - Oral evidence - 20th November 2024. Full transcript available here.

On Wednesday morning, the Health and Social Care Select Committee held its first public session in the new parliamentary term. This session looked to question Lord Darzi on key issues identified from his recent report, the ’ Independent investigation of the NHS in England’.

The session examined key themes from Darzi's report, including the importance of Labour’s shift from hospital to community-based care in delivering wider health system ambitions.

Community pharmacies were highlighted as an untapped resource to alleviate GP pressures and improve preventative care. Specifically, Darzi stated pharmacies could provide both healthcare and wellbeing support, claiming this is an ‘opportunity missed’. He stated that community pharmacy could help to reduce the burden on GPs and community services, a role which was evident during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emphasis was also placed on the importance of integrating social care with NHS services to enable efficient hospital discharges and enhance overall care. The potential of technology, particularly AI, was referred to on several occasions with regard to streamlining mundane tasks and improving productivity, fostering collaboration and innovation within a more community-centric NHS.

Oral Contributions:

House of Commons

Healthcare: Hampshire - 20th November 2024. Full transcript available here.

  • Dr Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat) spoke about the role of pharmacies in providing healthcare services in the local community and upcoming funding issues.

  • Andrew Gwynne (Labour) in his response outlined the role of the sector in alleviating GP pressure and the need to make better use of clinical skills in pharmacies.

House of Lords

National Insurance Contributions – 19th November 2024. Full transcript available here.

  • Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat) outlined that the cost to the pharmacy sector based on proposed changes to national insurance is roughly £50 million.

  • Baroness Merron (Labour) in her response noted that Labour appreciates the value that the sector will play in achieving one of the three shifts, hospital to community.

Written Questions:

There were 8 written questions relating to Pharmacy answered in the House of Commons and House of Lords this week. These can be viewed on Hansard here.