Many of the items on the government’s wish list are already being delivered in Sheffield, such as stop smoking, provision of EHC, supervised dosing and minor ailments and so we are already ahead of the pack. Indeed Sheffield’s own Tina Cooke gets a special mention as a model example of how pharmacy should look. The paper recognises that these schemes and many more need to be further developed and implemented nationally.

Pharmacy has been identified as being a key element in the public health agenda and we are being seriously considered to deliver new objectives such as the Vascular screening which has received much media attention recently.

What is not clear, however, is where the funding will come from. Furthermore, there is little in the way of guidance to suggest how services will be commissioned although the government is still keen to developand make full use of PBC.