The All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG) was formed in December 1999. It is a cross-party group within the UK Parliament made up of MPs and members of the House of Lords who share an interest in community pharmacy and medicines policy.
It regularly makes recommendations to the UK government on how to improve the community pharmacy sector, focusing on better integration, funding and services. These recommendations are typically aimed at improving patient care, increasing the efficiency of the healthcare system and ensuring that pharmacies can continue to play an essential role in public health.
This report is rooted in the findings of the APPG’s January 2023 inquiry and builds on two further oral evidence sessions held in December 2024 and May 2025. Here are 7 key recommendations they have just made to the government:
1. Provide a long-term funding settlement and modernise the pharmacy contract.
Many community pharmacies now face extreme financial pressures. There was a record net loss of 432 community pharmacies in England in the 2023/24 financial year and these closures are disproportionately affecting more deprived areas.Every day 1.6m people visit a pharmacy in England and Pharmacies dispense over 1.1bn NHS-prescribed medicines each year. The APPG stresses that sustainable funding is essential to ensure pharmacies can continue to offer services such as prescriptions, advice, vaccinations and health screenings.
2. Support the existing pharmacy network to support care at scale
England’s 9,000+ pharmacies are a vital but underused national asset. Sustaining this network requires secure core funding and national recognition of its clinical value.
Investment should further align pharmacy commissioning with wider NHS objectives, enabling pharmacies to function as fully integrated local health hubs.
The APPG recommends expanding the role of community pharmacies in primary care by allowing them to take on more healthcare responsibilities and function as fully integrated local health hubs.
Pharmacies are already trusted healthcare providers and embedded in the communities most impacted by health inequalities. There is significant potential to expand their role in managing minor illnesses, medication management, health checks and supporting chronic disease management.
3. Expand Pharmacy First into a national walk-in clinical service
Expand Pharmacy First and recognise pharmacists as essential healthcare professionals and an NHS access route - a front-door service for minor conditions.
Pharmacists often feel that their expertise is underutilised, particularly in primary care settings and that by formally recognising their role in patient care, pharmacists can contribute more effectively to health outcomes.
Community pharmacy has proven its ability to innovate quickly and effectively, particularly during the pandemic and through the rollout of Pharmacy First.
The government should implement policy changes to enable pharmacists to take a more active role in patient care, including prescribing and managing treatment plans, particularly for minor ailments and long-term conditions.
4. Empower the pharmacy workforce and invest in prescribing
Pharmacies should be encouraged to pilot diverse new services such as diagnostics, expanded prescribing and outreach for underserved groups, based on population need. A more permissive regulatory framework would support this goal, enabling agile, data-driven responses that reflect the diversity of England’s communities.
Empowering community pharmacy to support ongoing condition management would alleviate pressure on general practice and reduce avoidable hospital admissions while delivering more convenient care for patients. Innovation at the local level often outpaces national policy.
The Government should accelerate the rollout of independent prescribing through funded training, protected learning time and expanded supervisory capacity. The wider pharmacy team must also be upskilled and supported to manage clinical pressures
5. Implement the APPG’s recommendations on medicines supply and substitution
Medicines shortages continue to harm patients and place avoidable strain on pharmacists and wider NHS services. The Government should act on the recommendations set out in the APPG on Pharmacy’s report on medicines shortages (2025), particularly its central call to enable pharmacist-led therapeutic substitutions without the need for individual Serious Shortage Protocols. This would require legislative reform to provide pharmacists with the clinical autonomy to manage shortages safely and efficiently.
The APPG also calls for a national medicines supply strategy, improved transparency and routine stock level monitoring to reduce system-wide fragility and protect patient care.
6. Integrate community pharmacy into NHS systems and leadership
Community pharmacy must be represented at every level of Integrated Care Systems (ICS’s), roles in joint planning and neighbourhood team delivery. National commissioning standards should eliminate postcode lotteries and enable innovation to flourish based on local population needs.
Bizarrely, community pharmacists are almost always absent from all NHS strategic planning structures while hospital pharmacists or academic pharmacists are claimed to represent them instead. Greater representation of community pharmacists within such as Integrated Care Systems is essential to realising their potential as locally embedded access points and allowing community pharmacies to play a more central role in primary care teams, ensuring patients can access services closer to home.
7. Leverage community pharmacy to enhance the management of long term conditions.
Wider access to convenient care is a key enabler of economic productivity. Pharmacies
are uniquely placed to serve working-age adults and parents who often cannot engage with traditional 9–5 healthcare. With extended opening hours, high-street locations and walk-in access without the need for an appointment, community pharmacies are ideally positioned to deliver fast, flexible care- helping people stay healthy and stay in work.
With sensible investment, services such as expanded urgent care, minor illness care and vaccinations can be expanded through pharmacy to meet the needs of time-poor individuals, reducing absenteeism and enhancing economic
