Stuart Anderson MP visits MSN & Lunts Pharmacy, Church Stretton

Following an invitation from joint CEO of MSN & Lunts Pharmacies’ Ravi Nagra, local MP for South Shropshire Stuart Anderson visited their Church Stretton Pharmacy to hear about how community pharmacy services benefit his constituents, and more about the impact of the erosion of pharmacy funding over the previous seven years has had on the community pharmacy sector.

Community Pharmacy Shropshire Chief Officer Peter Prokopa joined the visit to brief Mr Anderson on both the Independent Economic Review into community pharmacy, and the recently-announced contract funding settlement for 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Stuart was particularly interested to hear how national pharmacy services, such as Pharmacy First, Oral Contraception and Hypertension Case Finding, can benefit patients and the health and care system more widely by increasing access to primary care, and supporting reduced reliance on urgent and emergency care; also how the Independent Prescriber Pathfinder programme being delivered in three Shropshire pharmacies, and Discharge Medicines Service was supporting improved integration between community pharmacy and pharmacy services in general practices, primary care networks, and hospital trusts.

Mr Anderson committed to raising the profile of community pharmacy locally with health and care stakeholders and within parliament; we thank Stuart for taking the time to visit and look forward to a close working relationship in the future.

Would you like to host a visit by your local MP? Check out Community Pharmacy Englands’s resources, confirm your MP’s details on the Parliament website, and get in touch with your Chief Officer for help and support by emailing peter@cpshropshire.org.uk.