Scottish Manifesto Breakdown - Community Pharmacy
Published: 29th April 2026
With the Scottish elections fast approaching, you’ll be hearing familiar phrases like “Get Scotland Working”, “Your Right to Decide”, and “Scotland Needs Change”. But what does this mean for community pharmacy in Scotland? Well our policy team has done the hard work for you, they have carefully been reviewing each party’s manifesto and breaking down exactly what it means for community pharmacy.
The following is a party-by-party breakdown of the health-related manifesto output from the main Scottish political parties, with a particular emphasis on the importance to community pharmacy.
The strongest themes common across party lines that represent opportunities or alignment with our own manifesto are:
Developing screening programmes and improving access to these in the community
Cardiology is the main focus, with the SNP putting forward a “Health MOT” concept as seen in Japan.
Roll out of preventative interventions feature highly, though the Health Foundation has already flagged that no party has been strong enough in their commitments in this area.
Includes weight loss and smoking cessation
Moving existing workload into primary care to improve access.
Minor conditions
Menopause
Utilising community pharmacy prescribing
Substance use development
Accelerating digital prescribing and access to records.
Please see the full breakdown below:
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Shift care towards community settings, prioritising early intervention and prevention in obesity, cancer, and heart disease.
Introduce local “one-stop shops” (e.g. pharmacies, sports clubs) for over-40s to access heart and lung health checks.
Launch the MyCare.scot app for self-management and online appointment booking.
Expand community-based recovery support for substance use.
Implement end-to-end digital prescribing with pharmacy access to patient records to reduce delays.
Ensure access to progesterone following miscarriage.
Expand PrEP availability beyond sexual health clinics.
Introduce a 3-year NHS job guarantee for healthcare graduates.
Extend Fair Work requirements to publicly funded contracts and outsourcing.
Roll out community bleed kits to treat severe injuries.
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Expand community pharmacy roles in treating common conditions and delivering frontline care.
Establish neighbourhood health hubs and shift diagnostic testing into community settings.
Enable direct referrals by healthcare professionals for specialist tests and services.
Roll out an NHS app, patient portal, e-prescribing, online bookings, and a single shared patient record.
Provide menopause clinics in every health board.
Develop community cardiology services and expand blood pressure monitoring.
Broaden smoking cessation programmes to include young people and vapers.
Explore expanded access to prescription weight-loss treatments.
Introduce rapid pathways for early cancer diagnosis.
Streamline substance use services and implement drug checking.
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Improve NHS digital systems and introduce a single shared patient record across primary, hospital, and social care.
Expand detection and management of cardiovascular risk factors.
Develop and pilot community-based cardiology services.
Build integrated networks across NHS, third sector, and community services for prevention.
Make naloxone widely available in public settings, including pharmacies and defibrillator stations.
Strengthening smoking prevention and cessation services, targeting deprived communities.
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Expand pharmacists’ prescribing role using secure health records, particularly for repeat and long-term conditions.
Ensure all NHS IT systems are interoperable and roll out a comprehensive NHS app.
Create a national network of “life stations” combining naloxone, defibrillators, and bleed kits.
Improve medicines optimisation to reduce harm and cut unnecessary prescribing and waste.
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Introduce targeted screening for at-risk groups to enable earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Improve access to menopause and endometriosis services.
Implement a unified “One NHS” digital platform with shared patient records.
Remove supermarket-available items from free prescriptions.
Enable all health boards to prescribe weight-loss drugs for obesity.
Require reassessment of long-term methadone treatment after two years.
Reintroduce the Right to Recovery Bill.
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Reform UK will immediately establish an independent, expert Scottish Healthcare Reform Commission to undertake an ambitious review of healthcare delivery with action plans on:
A workforce plan to train more doctors and nurses in Scotland
Creative delayed discharge solutions to increase hospital efficiency
Long term funding and optimisation of the integration of adult social care
A shift to a prevention strategy in persistent health inequalities
Expansion of frontline services in the community and in GP surgeries
Embracing tech including AI and the NHS England App
(Very little information contained within Manifesto)
If you have any questions or need support, particularly if engaging with election candidates, please get in touch at enquiries@cps.scot
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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To help members understand what each main Scottish political party is proposing on health and social care, and where there may be opportunities or implications for community pharmacy.
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The breakdown covers the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour, Scottish Greens, Reform UK, SNP, and Scottish Liberal Democrats.
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Several themes appeared across party lines, including prevention, improved screening access, shifting care into communities, digital healthcare, faster GP access, prescribing reform, and tackling substance misuse.
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Many proposals directly or indirectly affect community pharmacy, particularly around Pharmacy First, prescribing, preventative care, screening, digital prescribing, medicines access, and relieving pressure on GP services.
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Many proposals directly or indirectly affect community pharmacy, particularly around Pharmacy First, prescribing, preventative care, screening, digital prescribing, medicines access, and relieving pressure on GP services.
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Scottish Labour, the SNP, and the Scottish Liberal Democrats made the clearest references to expanding or utilising community pharmacy services, while other parties proposed policies that could also create opportunities.
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Potential opportunities include delivering more screening services, menopause support, smoking cessation, weight management services, cardiology monitoring, prescribing for minor conditions, and improved access to patient records.
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If you need support, particularly when engaging with election candidates, please contact enquiries@cps.scot
The top question for this week is around the processing of claims for the service.