PSNC has published a five-point plan setting out the steps it believes the NHS should take to transform the delivery of primary care by harnessing the potential of community pharmacy.

The plan sets out five key services that PSNC believes the NHS should commission quickly via the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework to provide better patient care and reduce pressure on GPs and urgent care services. Its five points are:

1. Give patients easier access to urgent medication. An urgent supply service would contribute to seven-day NHS working and save around £45 per patient.
2. Offer people advice at their own convenience, using pharmacy as a first port of call. This would reduce demand for GP appointments and save £25 net per patient per GP consultation.
3. Care for frail and older people. Pharmacy support could reduce avoidable health complications, saving around £2,000 per hospital admission.
4. Support people to manage their long-term conditions more effectively. Pharmacist support for people with simple hypertension and asthma can help them manage their own health.
5. Help identify people with undiagnosed respiratory disease. Pharmacists could provide risk assessments for people potentially at risk of having or developing COPD, followed by advice and stop smoking support or referral

Commitment to the community pharmacy flu vaccination service showed that the NHS was starting to see the value pharmacy offered, said an article in August's Community Pharmacy News. "But progress is too slow and we believe they must speed up."

The popularity of existing community pharmacy services showed how open the public were to receiving a range of services and advice from pharmacies. "We also know that pharmacy is ready, willing and able to deliver many more services provided we are fairly remunerated for doing so."

Many of the services had been tested locally so PSNC knew that they would improve care for patients as well as reducing pressure on GPs and other providers. "It is time to scale these local successes up and offer the services nationally. This plan builds on our previous work but will provide a new focus, and it also sets out clearly the services we would like to discuss with the NHS. We will be discussing the plan with NHS England, politicians and others and we hope that the services set out within it will be included within the negotiating mandate for 2016/17."