The health minister Stephen Kinnock promised Labour will support community pharmacies to play a part in helping it realise its ambition of shifting care from hospitals into communities during his first visit to a pharmacy since taking office.

Kinnock, pictured left receiving a winter flu vaccine during a visit to Bedminster Pharmacy in Bristol yesterday, met the team and its superintendent pharmacist Ade Williams (right) and heard about the ways they improve the health and wellbeing of their local community.

Williams said Kinnock’s visit was a good chance “to discuss first-hand our expansive potential to help drive forward the ambitious plans for NHS renewal.” Kinnock also spoke to patients who came into the pharmacy.

Kinnock said: “I was delighted to visit Bedminster Pharmacy today and see first-hand the fantastic work they do. I heard about the challenges that pharmacies and pharmacists face and saw how integral they are to their community.

“We inherited a broken NHS, where pharmacies have been neglected for years. As we shift care out of the hospital and into the community, we will support community pharmacies and pharmacists who will be crucial to making a healthcare system fit for the future.”

After the visit, Williams told Pharmacy Magazine: “It was evident that the minister was very aware of community pharmacy’s pressures and challenges. The visit was an opportunity to openly discuss the pressures and the physiological impact of a constant sense of jeopardy.

“It was good to discuss independent prescribing, early cancer detection and shared care treatment opportunities, accessible women’s health, and mental health support for pharmacy teams, alongside delivering evidence-based interventions for our communities.

“We used the example of our Lancet-commended “pulse in the pub initiative“ to demonstrate how well-placed and received community pharmacy CVD risk assessments and appropriate treatment initiation offer great potential.

“At a time when community pharmacy is not the only voice asking for support, I can only hope that our patients were able to convey the potential to deliver on the three NHS priorities and also their fears for our inability to weather the storms battering us daily,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire Helen Morgan (pictured below in the middle) went to Green End Pharmacy in Whitchurch where she heard about its struggles to stay open because of funding pressures.

In a post on Facebook after her visit, Morgan insisted she supported the Save our Pharmacies campaign and said: “Independent community pharmacies offer a huge amount to the customers they serve.

“Despite this, seven pharmacies are closing every week, creating 'deserts' in many of our most rural areas. It was very useful to meet with the team at Green End Pharmacy in Whitchurch and offer my support to the Save our Pharmacies campaign and petition.”

Morgan has regularly warned that many people in her constituency have to drive long distances to get their medicine because of a lack of late-night pharmacies in the area.