New resources to help pharmacy support NHS care this winter

Community pharmacies are to play a greater role in providing care for patients this winter under new plans from NHS England.

The national body has published a collection of resources to help local commissioners to make better use of pharmacy support over the coming months, offering a range of suggestions and guidance on how this can be accomplished.

Detailed proposals will be given on how pharmacies can provide influenza vaccinations, emergency supplies of medicines and provision of self-care support for winter ailments, with full implementation plans and template documents set to be provided.

This will help the NHS make greater use of the expertise offered by pharmacists at a time when patient attendance numbers are expected to soar during a particularly harsh winter.

Alastair Buxton, head of NHS Services said: "The documents provide a really useful set of tools which will allow commissioners to rapidly make better use of community pharmacies to cope with the challenges presented by winter pressures on other NHS services."

This comes after the Department of Health announced the allocation of an extra 150 million pounds in funding for accident and emergency services across the country last month in order to better handle the expected winter pressures.