Why community health services must be central to the NHS ten-year plan

While these priorities signal progress, growing concern remains that one essential professional group has not been adequately recognised within this vision — pharmacy professionals working in community health services.

This concern is explored by Joanne Clarke, Deputy chief pharmacist for HCRG Care Group and Chair of the UKCPA Community Health Services Committee in a February 2026 opinion article published by The Pharmaceutical Journal, which argues that the plan underestimates the contribution pharmacy teams make to patient care outside hospital settings. The article highlights a critical gap: without formally embedding pharmacy roles into community health services and workforce planning, the NHS risks missing a major opportunity to improve patient safety, outcomes and system efficiency.

Community health services support people throughout their lives, from early years to end-of-life care. Much of this care is delivered in people’s homes, care homes, community hospitals, schools and rehabilitation units. Many patients receiving care at home are housebound and may have limited contact with GPs or hospital clinicians. In these settings, medicines are often prescribed, adjusted and administered without the routine oversight that exists in acute hospitals.

Pharmacy professionals bring specialist expertise to these environments, ensuring medicines are used safely and effectively. A 2024 systematic review by the World Health Organization found that preventable medication-related harm is particularly prevalent among older adults, reinforcing the need for targeted pharmacy input in community and home-based care.

Prevention is one of the NHS ten-year plan’s core ambitions, and pharmacy professionals are central to delivering it. Preventing drug interactions, medication-related falls, adverse effects and avoidable hospital admissions is a daily part of pharmacy practice.

One of the most valuable contributions pharmacy professionals make in community settings is deprescribing and reducing unnecessary polypharmacy. Conducting medication reviews in a patient’s home allows pharmacists to see how medicines are actually stored, taken and administered, and to identify practical barriers that are rarely visible in clinic-based consultations.

Community-based care increasingly involves patients with complex medication regimens, including those receiving acute treatment through “hospital at home” or virtual ward models. Pharmacy professionals play a key role in enabling these services to operate safely, advising on sourcing, storage, administration and legal considerations for high-risk medicines.

Guidance from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society states that “Hospital at home services require a trained pharmacy team with appropriate levels of staff available to deliver a safe and high-quality service.” This level of acuity demands consistent pharmacy involvement in multidisciplinary team meetings, medicines reconciliation and discharge planning.

One of the most striking gaps in the NHS ten-year plan is the limited attention given to palliative and end-of-life care. Despite most people spending their final months of life at home or in care homes, pharmacy professionals remain essential to managing complex symptom-control regimens and ensuring medicines are available and used safely.

The NHS ten-year plan presents a real opportunity to redesign care around patients’ needs in the community. However, this ambition will only be realised if the workforce plan — expected in 2026 — explicitly includes pharmacy professionals across community health services.

The future of the NHS depends on delivering safer, more preventive and more personalised care closer to home. Pharmacy professionals are already doing this work across community health services, often without formal recognition. To succeed, the NHS must place pharmacy at the heart of community health — not as an optional extra, but as a fundamental part of delivering high-quality care. 

Join UKCPA for support throughout your pharmacy career

Become a member of UKCPA for less than £3 a week to join a supportive community that will provide you with a whole host of opportunities throughout your career. The benefits of joining UKCPA include:

• Find a community dedicated to your field of interest, from Community Health Services to Care of Older Peopleand from Infection to Emergency Care
• Get access to an extensive resource library, featuring research, papers, and useful documents submitted by your peers
• Keep on top of your training with ongoing, expert-led education
• Take part in forum discussions on everything from workplace well-being to medicines safety
• Connect with other pharmacy professionals in person or online at regular networking events

Join UKCPA today.