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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I support the noble Earl in his attempts to join our ongoing campaign to secure the future of community pharmacists. He is right that community pharmacists rely on the NHS element of what they do for the bulk of their business. That is what makes their businesses viable. It is also true to say that community pharmacies deliver to the NHS a level of service that is way above what they are contracted to do. Those of us with friends who are pharmacists know, having discussed these matters with them, that lots of studies show that, to be viable, a parade of shops must have a shop to buy newspapers, somewhere to buy food and a pharmacy. Community pharmacies provide a huge amount of preventive healthcare information, but they are struggling. The amendment, which the Government could easily accept, would guarantee pharmacists some stability with which to underpin their businesses. If the Government were to do so, that investment would pay for itself in the additional services that community pharmacies would offer in areas with the greatest health poverty. I strongly support the amendment.