The leaders of five national pharmacy organisations have written to Ben Dyson, executive director of strategy, NHS Improvement and Emily Lawson, national director, transformation and corporate operations at NHS England, to seek inclusion in a new stakeholder forum being created to oversee progress on developing long-term plans for the NHS.

At a recent board meeting between NHS England and NHS Improvement, it was announced that an ‘NHS Assembly’ would be created, to include representatives from commissioning bodies as well as those who work in the healthcare sector.

The national pharmacy bodies have written a joint letter offering their services to the Assembly and highlighting what their members can offer to help the NHS to achieve its ambitions.

As well as describing the vital role that community pharmacies and pharmacists working in other settings play in ensuring that patients have access to medicines and can use them effectively, the letter sets out how the sector could help to improve patient care and the wellbeing of local communities.

The signatories to the letter were the chief executives of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIM), the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).

You can read the letter here.