Healthy Living Pharmacy (England)
When the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework for 2019/2020 – 2023/24 was published in July 2019, it stated that all pharmacies in England need to be a Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) by April 2020.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) released a memorandum stating that as part of the terms of service, all pharmacy contractors must ensure they are compliant with the HLP requirement from the 1st January 2021.
Distance Selling Pharmacies (DSP) must be compliant from the 1st April 2021. A HLP looks at developing the pharmacy team and for them to make a long term commitment to:
- Improving health and wellbeing of their local community.
- Be proactive with health promotions to reach out to the wider community.
- Offer brief advice and signpost to external services. A HLP can generate income by linking to services and over the counter (OTC) products already offered in the pharmacy via the health promotion zone.
Accreditation Requirements
In summary, the following requirements must be met in order to achieve the HLP Level 1 quality mark and maintain it:
- Health Champion – one full-time equivalent individual will be required to complete training to become a health champion who will play an active role with implementing HLP and will be responsible for setting up and maintaining the health promotion zone.
- Leadership training - an individual from the pharmacy team is required to complete the leadership training and will be responsible for creating the ethos for HLP and is in a position to delegate.
- Health Promotion Zone (HPZ) – clearly marked area in the pharmacy which displays health and wellbeing information on different health topics to meet local need.
- Evidence portfolio – a piece of evidence is required for each quality criterion – this can range from certificates, customer testimonials, health promotion activity through to retaining photographs.
Supporting Resources
For support with setting up your regular health promotion campaigns, visit our Health Promotion Library page.