The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has issued proposals for the Pharmacy Integration Fund and called for it to be used to enable all pharmacists to provide more direct care to patients by expanding the range of clinical services they offer and integrating them into local care models outlined in the Five Year Forward View. 

The fund, worth £20m in 2016 rising to a total of £300m by 2020-21, is intended to help pharmacists and their teams to be fully incorporated across NHS planning and service delivery.

Chair of the English Pharmacy Board Sandra Gidley said: “We would expect bids for this fund, enabling multi-disciplinary team working, to be led by pharmacists. The fund should only be available to support changes which integrate pharmacists into health systems to benefit patients."

The RPS hopes that by 2021, the pharmacy integration fund will have brought about demonstrable change, including: urgent care delivered through pharmacy; long-term care better supported by pharmacists and new roles for pharmacists, such as in care homes, urgent clinical care hubs and other new models of care.