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Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison did not rule out the possibility of a fully funded national pharmacy deprescribing service as she fielded questions at the Pharmacy Show but it remains unclear whether pharmacy's negotiator has specifically talked to the government about it or when it will do so.

Morrison told the show in Birmingham yesterday that CPE has had "a lot of conversations" with Labour about exisiting adherence services such as the New Medicine Service (NMS) and Discharge Medicine Service (DMS) but said she was cautious about diverting focus to a national deprescribing service because the priority for CPE is ensuring the current contract works effectively.

"I just think we have to be cautious about balancing out the current contract and making sure that's also achieving its fullest potential," she said. "So, yes, (a deprescribing service) is part of the ask but we also need to make sure we'e making the most of the current services which need to be able to really deliver on the benefits that they couldn't fully realise."

An investigation by The Times this year lifted the lid on the public health crisis caused by inappropriate polypharmacy in England. It found 1,000 elderly patients are being sent to accident and emergency departments a day.

Around 2.2 million people in the UK take 10 or more prescribed drugs daily while over eight million take at least five. Morrison said a national pharmacy deprescribing service was "something to bid for".

"We've also had a lot of conversations about DMS, for example, (which) is not a national service. We're having conversations for the longer term about the areas where we could, as part of the (government's health) reform programme, be doing more in terms of clinical services," she said.

"But I'm just being a little bit cautious at the moment in terms of I think it's a long term issue that the NHS has to address, polypharmacy, and about the rising drugs bill and showing the benefits of it."

Laying out potential future developments for independent prescribing, Morrison said when it came to national commissioning, Pharmacy First prescribing will replace patient group directions and more conditions will be added to the service.

Pharmacists, she predicted, will get "flexibilities" to amend prescriptions to address supply chain issues.

She also said cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, women's health, weight management, structured medication reviews and deprescribing will "likely" be locally commissioned by integrated care boards.