Rachel Gilmour

As the hon. Member knows, I am keen on strategies, particularly the one that he has just mentioned. Pharmacies are not paid for the informal advice sessions. In over half of such occasions, if the patient had not been able to access their local community pharmacy they would have instead visited their GP surgery. That suggests that we have freed up 37.7 million GP appointments over the course of a year simply by patients having access to their local community pharmacy, which speaks to the point that the hon. Member just made. Such a workload is commendable, but it is not sustainable in the current funding model. That has meant that over the autumn the National Pharmacy Association found that pharmacies are overwhelmingly willing to reduce services in order to protect patient safety and preserve access to pharmacies, if funding is not provided to protect the network. Pharmacies do not want to do that; they know the impact that reducing their services can have on a community, but if the other option involves continuing in an overstretched, under-supported environment, for pharmacists and anyone committed to delivering health and health-related services to vulnerable people, it is not a real choice.