Community pharmacy and Public Health England strategy 2020-25

Public Health England has said that reducing risk from antimicrobial resistance will be among its key priorities in the years up to 2025.

Pharmacists have a key stewardship role in tackling AMR, according to the National Pharmacy Association.

NPA Policy Manager, Helga Mangion, says: “Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health issue in the UK and is something that all healthcare professionals need to take action against. Community pharmacist is ideally placed to provide stewardship on this issue and to help educate people on best practice related to the appropriate use of antibiotics.”

Publishing its five year strategy up to 2025, Public Health England also said it would prioritise work to reduce health inequalities.  Community pharmacies are disproportionately located in deprived areas – a rare exception to the so-called inverse care law under which people with the highest needs have the least access to advice and treatment.

NPA Board member, Andrew Lane, said this week: “The prevalence of chronic medical conditions is greater in communities that are challenged by multiple levels of deprivation, and in which live those who experience health inequality, poorer social capital and reduced economic opportunity. These are the communities that are often under-doctored and have seen the local health estate shrink, but community pharmacies are still very much present in all our communities and are a local lifeline in some areas.”

The National Pharmacy Association fed into the PHE Strategy and will continue to put the case for how community pharmacies are vital to the delivery of public health objectives across the whole of the UK.