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Chairman of the Pharmacy and Public Health Forum Jonathan McShane urged Pharmacy Show delegates to engage with Health and Wellbeing Boards as soon as possible.

"There's been a lot of criticism of Health and Wellbeing Boards, saying that they're not on your side, but that's unfair," said Mr McShane. "Health and Wellbeing Boards don't really have anything real to do. They have lots of strategies to prepare, but development will mean a bigger role for them so it's important that pharmacists get their feet under the table now."

A number of factors, such as devolution, had made the Forum's job more complex than when it was founded. But it was now working with the Royal Society for Public Health to find solutions. "If you're a local authority public health team that's worked with pharmacy in the past, how can we restart that conversation to give community pharmacy the tools it needs to engage locally? As community leaders, pharmacists have a lot to offer to the discussion." Mr McShane hoped that, within the next three years, commissioners and the public would have a better understanding of what community pharmacy could offer.

As part of a joint discussion, Pharmacy Voice chief executive Rob Darracott (pictured) suggested there was some uncertainty about where pharmacy should go next in relation to public health. The Pharmacy and Public Health Forum had done "some useful things" and got off to a good start. But there had been a pause in the roll out of healthy living pharmacies. "We had a great kick off then it lost its way a little bit." Was healthy living pharmacy a commissioning platform or something else? "We shouldn't view it as a badge, there's much more to it than that."

Pharmacists should be more proactive if new roles were to develop. "We need to stop waiting for permission. It needs someone to start being a bit unreasonable and just getting on with it."