Community Pharmacy Forward View

Published on: 29th August 2016 | Updated on: 15th March 2022

The Community Pharmacy Forward View, published by Community Pharmacy England and Pharmacy Voice, with the support of the RPS English Pharmacy Board, on 30th August 2016, sets out the sector’s ambitions to radically enhance and expand the personalised care, support and wellbeing services that community pharmacies provide. In the scenarios outlined in the document, pharmacy teams would be fully integrated with other local health and care services in order to improve quality and access for patients, increase NHS efficiency and produce better health outcomes for all.

The Community Pharmacy Forward View sets out the organisations’ shared ambition for the sector, focused on three key roles for the community pharmacy of the future:

1. As the facilitator of personalised care for people with long-term conditions

Community pharmacists and their teams will support people with long-term conditions and their carers by providing a one-stop hub for advice, treatment and coordination of care related to medicines. This will include support following diagnosis, monitoring and adjusting treatment according to outcomes defined in an individual’s care and support plan, and ensuring that all medicine’s related aspects of care are managed safely and efficiently when someone’s circumstances change, for example when admitted to or leaving hospital.

To achieve this vision, community pharmacists and their teams will work in partnership with their colleagues across the wider health and care system. In some areas, people will be able to register with a community pharmacy to coordinate their care and support them with management of their long-term condition, where this is agreed as appropriate between the individual, their GP and pharmacist.

2. As the trusted, convenient first port of call for episodic healthcare advice and treatment

Thinking ‘pharmacy first’ for non-emergency episodic care will become the public norm. To achieve this vision, systems that enable seamless triage to and referral from community pharmacy will be included in all local urgent care pathways and in the NHS 111 service. Pharmacies will provide access to diagnostics and be able to make appointments with other health professionals. Pharmacists will be able to prescribe as well as supply products.

3. As the neighbourhood health and wellbeing hub

Pharmacies will operate as neighbourhood health and wellbeing centres, becoming the ‘go-to’ destination for support, advice and resources on staying well and living independently. As a trusted local community resource, all pharmacies will be connected with other organisations that support health, wellbeing and independence – ranging across local community groups, charities, places of worship, leisure and library facilities, social care, education, employment, housing and welfare services – and will be able to refer and sign-post people to them. Community pharmacists and their teams will work closely with employers to support workplace health initiatives, and will help people make best use of data, technology and devices they use to monitor and manage their own physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Many of these scenarios are already happening in pharmacies across the country, or could be if community pharmacy teams were given the opportunity. Our ambition is that with the right supporting systems, processes and incentives in place, and a rigorous focus on implementation and continual improvement, community pharmacy can and will deliver these three domains of activity consistently across England, enabling effective planning and commissioning of person-centred services from the community pharmacy network.

The Forward View represents the sector’s vision for the future of community pharmacy but the views of key stakeholders are now invited – including patient groups, pharmacy contractors, community pharmacists and members of pharmacy teams, LPCs, local commissioners, other healthcare providers and the Government. This will help turn a shared vision for the sector into a reality that will be good for patients, the public, local communities and the NHS, as well as for the community pharmacy network and all those who work in it.

Community Pharmacy Forward View – Executive Summary

Community Pharmacy Forward View – Full document

Making it Happen

As part of the next stage of the Community Pharmacy Forward View project, a micro site has been created to provide community pharmacy teams, LPCs and key stakeholders with detailed information and resources, including an outline implementation framework for delivering this vision and case studies from pharmacy organisations who are pioneering new ways of working.


Resources

Community Pharmacy Forward View micro site

Slide deck on the Forward View (PowerPoint)

Slide deck on the Forward View (PDF)

Community Pharmacy Forward View infographic flyer and references
This flyer describes how implementing the Forward View can help the NHS to cope with the pressures it is currently facing. It has been written to help LPCs guide conversations on the CPFV with MPs, but click here for a Word version so you can share it with other external audiences by altering the ‘How you can help’ section. We have also created a version for councillors.

Community Pharmacy England Briefing 060/16: Patient activation and why it is relevant to community pharmacy (October 2016)
The concept of Patient Activation Measure was mentioned in the Community Pharmacy Forward View. This briefing summarises information from NHS England and the King’s Fund’s briefing on Patient Activation Measures (PAM) to explain about the concept of patient activation and how it is relevant to community pharmacy services.

Latest National Pharmacy Services news

View more National Pharmacy Services newsSee all