Nearly 1.02 billion prescription items were dispensed by community pharmacies in 2016-17, according to the latest ‘General Pharmaceutical Services in England: 2007/08 to 2016/17’ report from NHS Digital.

The number of community pharmacies rose slightly, by 0.1 per cent, to 11,699 compared to 2015/16, but the number of independents dropped by 0.3 per cent to 4,434. Some 3.4 million MURs were provided by 11,244 pharmacies and just over 950,000 flu vaccinations carried out, a number that has already been surpassed this year.