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Community pharmacy needs to make research part of everyday practice in order to prove the impact the sector can have on patient outcomes, according to Tracey Thornley, an honorary professor at Nottingham University's school of pharmacy, speaking at the RPS conference.

It wasn't just about demonstrating clinical effectiveness, she said, but how it affected patient safety and experience, and the value for money it offered to the NHS. Audit and evidence collection were two ways community pharmacy could relatively easily contribute to the research agenda, Professor Thornley continued. €We must work closely with academics who are used to doing this so research can be published and made more widely available and accessible.€

Publication had the added benefit of providing a way to showcase exactly what pharmacies were doing, she said, although she stressed that it was important to avoid €research for research's sake€. A paper published in 2014 said that patients found pharmacy flu schemes convenient and led to an increase in overall vaccination rates. Along with work done in the Isle of Wight, London and West Yorkshire, this proved that pharmacy can make a difference, Professor Thornley said.

Community pharmacists had provided the data that the research was based on and were instrumental in the development of the flu vaccination service that has just been introduced across England.