Local pharmacies could free up more than 42 million GP appointments every year, research suggests.
The Company Chemists’ Association said the sector could “significantly increase access to primary care”, cut annual hospital readmissions by 65,000 and deliver 10m extra routine vaccinations each year.
The plans are revealed in the CCA’s ‘Prospectus for community pharmacy’, extracts of which have been shared exclusively with the Mirror.
The CCA said: “Community pharmacies already work collaboratively with the NHS to ensure that patients can access care easily and safely.
“Whilst the sector has evolved considerably in recent years, the CCA proposes that pharmacies could do even more to directly tackle key problems for patients.
“This additional resource for the NHS can be unlocked by appropriate support and investment from policymakers.”
But the CCA warned that without extra cash, more community pharmacies could close.
The Mirror is campaigning to save family chemists, but the association said it was “concerned that without immediate action closures will become increasingly common”.
It added: “Fewer pharmacies will considerably diminish access to vital medicines and services, with the greatest impact on those in deprived communities.
“Without immediate action and funding core services will be lost.”
The CCA proposes creating a “pharmacy first” service to shift at least 30.5m urgent and same-day appointments a year from GP practices.
It wants to transfer more than 10m vaccinations and at least two million contraception appointments away from GP practices every year.
The body also outlined plans to screen five million people each year for undiagnosed hypertension - potentially diagnosing 200,000 new patients
Chief executive Malcolm Harrison said: “The future of community pharmacy has the potential to be incredibly bright - pharmacies can help immediately improve access to GPs.
“However, we are at a fork in the road.
“Policymakers cannot escape the fact that the current business model for community pharmacy is broken, and that the pharmacy network is no longer economically viable.
“If the Government wants to deliver a tangible difference to the healthcare of the nation, they will take forward recommendations outlined in this prospectus.
“If they are not serious, the Government will be making a conscious decision to wind down the sector.”
Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pharmacy and sits on the Commons Health Select Committee, said: “Pharmacies are at the bedrock of our communities with nine out of 10 of us living within a 20-minute walk of one and yet they remain limited to giving advice and providing over-the-counter purchase of medicines.
“If the Government is serious about tackling the crisis across the NHS, it needs to take advantage of the sleeping giant that is community pharmacy.
“If properly funded, we could expect pharmacies to release over 42 million appointments from GP surgeries and reduce hospital readmissions by 65,000 a year.
“Pharmacies are closing at an alarming rate.
“It is high time the Government took notice of this underutilised sector and put its money where its mouth is.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “Community pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system and we back them with £2.6billion a year and an additional £100m to help support services.
“Over the next 18 months we will be increasing the support pharmacists - who are degree qualified medical health professionals - can provide including taking referrals from A&E, managing oral contraception needs and supporting patients who have been newly-prescribed antidepressants.
“Eighty percent of people can access a pharmacy within a 20-minute walk and there remain twice as many pharmacies in deprived areas compared to less deprived areas.”
