Contribution
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for placing this matter before us. I also welcome the Minister to his place. I very much look forward to his commitment to the pharmacies, and I welcome the Government’s commitment so far—it would be rather churlish of anybody to say that we do not appreciate that.
In January 2024, I called for a UK-wide roll-out of the Pharmacy First service, recognising increasing demand on pharmacies and the need for consistent access to healthcare across the United Kingdom. As the Democratic Unionist party’s health spokesperson, I continue to advocate for increased investments and support for the scheme as a means of decreasing pressures on our already strained healthcare system.
Across the United Kingdom, a significant proportion of GP workload is addressing minor ailments—conditions that can be appropriately treated in community pharmacies. I have always advocated for that; we should be doing more of it. Investing and increasing community pharmacies’ capacity to treat those conditions, and, in turn, highlighting to the public their ability to avail themselves of pharmaceutical services for such ailments, will improve ease of access to standard care, reducing unnecessary GP and out-of-hours contact. Broadening the capability of the scheme also allows pharmacists to build their clinical skills and creates a more experienced workforce that can more readily diagnose and treat conditions, so I believe that we should look at this as an opportunity.
I want to give a Northern Ireland perspective, as I always do in debates. There are 508 community pharmacies in Northern Ireland, and their use is steadily increasing. In 2024-25, Northern Irish pharmacies dispensed more than 45.7 million items—a 0.7% increase on the previous year. That is the highest figure on record, which indicates that we need to increase support for pharmacies to meet demand. In Northern Ireland, community pharmacies would benefit from a more formalised version of the Pharmacy First scheme, as it currently diverges from England’s formalised Pharmacy First structure and depends primarily on a minor ailments service. What discussions can the Minister—who is always responsive, for which I thank him—have with the Northern Ireland Assembly Minister, to ascertain how we can work better with the system that has been proposed for England.
There is clear support for the scheme in Northern Ireland: 96% of respondents to a 2024 Northern Ireland Department of Health survey said that the informal Pharmacy First service should be recommended to others. The service improves patients’ confidence in the self-management of conditions, which is vital to a long-term reduction of unnecessary burdens on our strained GP services. As a result of the benefits of the service, in May 2024 the Department of Health’s community pharmacy strategic plan unveiled plans for Northern Irish pharmacies to treat six new conditions, offer two new services and run various pilots. Those improvements are to be introduced in the period up to 2030, but they are subject to the securing of the necessary funding.
Rural patients often travel significant distances to access GPs, but they are likely to have easy access to a pharmacy. It is estimated that, as of 2025, 99% of Northern Ireland citizens live within five miles of their local pharmacy. Pharmacies clearly play a big role for us in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom. Many rural residents are older adults who live with long-term health conditions, so improving access to Pharmacy First services will support early intervention. The DUP recognises the pressure on GPs and hospitals, and recently welcomed the £42 million investment in pharmacy and digital reform, which has the potential to modernise prescription services to reduce the pressure.
I very much look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say. In particular, I ask him to share the information from England with the Minister in Northern Ireland, and to ensure that the UK-wide support for this vital cog in the health machine is endorsed and even increased.