Pharmacy needs to look at ways of personalising patient care and bringing together physical health, mental health and social care if it is help the NHS meet its ambitions and truly "make every contact count", a leading contractor representative has told the Avicenna conference.

Hemant Patel, secretary of North East London LPC, argued that it should be part of a pharmacist's role to help address the causes of poor mental health in their patients, such as domestic violence, debt or housing issues, rather than simply dispensing prescriptions for antidepressants.

"One in four people coming into your pharmacy will have mental health problems, but pharmacy has made little effort to bring together the treatments for physical health and mental health problems," he told delegates.

He added that pharmacy teams should view the patient as "a whole person" and not "just a diabetic or asthmatic", for example.

Providing personalised care, claimed Mr Patel, would help improve health and social care outcomes by helping the patient to better understand their condition and play a more active role in managing it.

To achieve personalised care, he advised pharmacists to reach out to their local community, particularly population groups at risk of disease, work with other health and social care workers as part of a multi-disciplinary team and support independent living through supplying mobility aids, as well as acquiring new skills like health coaching.

He also urged delegates to change the terminology they use – "Why is it that nurses provide care and pharmacists provide services?" – and even suggested that pharmacists should be able to provide full medication reviews and not just MURs.

"Personalised care presents challenges to patients and clinicians but it is the cheapest form of treatment," he claimed. "We need passion and commitment and a plan. Pharmacists should think of themselves as team leaders so that commissioners have confidence in them."