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The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has called for immediate intervention by Health Secretary Neil Gray to compensate pharmacies left in financial chaos due to flaws in Scotland's new pharmacy payment system. Introduced last year, the system was designed to streamline payments to pharmacies, dispensing doctors, and medical appliance suppliers. However, the NPA, which represents independent pharmacies across the UK, reported that many pharmacies were facing repeated shortfalls in expected funding under the system. Some pharmacies have encountered discrepancies of tens of thousands pounds due to errors in the Data Capture Validation & Pricing process introduced by NHS National Services Scotland. In other cases, NHS Boards have clawed back money from pharmacies at short notice, following processing errors that had initially resulted in an overpayment.

The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) has called upon all pharmacy organisations to unite and collectively represent the sector. While underlining the need for the sector to adopt a straightforward manifesto that can be presented to the public, politicians, and decision-makers, the association also advocated for a revitalisation of the 'Save Our Pharmacies' campaign, injecting it with renewed energy and a stronger sense of purpose. AIMp pointed out that a lack of cohesion is one of the factors contributing to the sector's struggle in gaining attention. "The current trajectory of community pharmacy is unsustainable," said Dr. Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive of AIMp. "To tackle the significant challenges ahead, we must work together cohesively. The most effective approach is to actively engage with Parliament, leveraging politicians from across the political spectrum to advocate for our cause." Meanwhile, the association urged various pharmacy bodies to unite in support of the Pharmacy All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to enhance its effectiveness and broaden its influence, rather than working independently.

Health secretary Sajid Javid visited Medicine Chest Pharmacy in London on Friday (January 28) and thanked pharmacy teams across England for delivering well over 20 million Covid-19 jabs. According to the latest research conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and PharmData, independent community pharmacies were the biggest deliverers of Covid-19 vaccines during January 2021 to September 2021 as compared to corporate-run pharmacy sites. As of January 2022, pharmacies across the whole sector had delivered 22 million Covid jabs, with the majority of them being independents of whom most are NPA members. In a video message released after the visit, Javid said: "Today I am here at Medicine Chest pharmacy in London to thank them, all pharmacies, the NHS, for the fantastic job they have done particularly over the last few months to get our country boosted. It's because of this phenomenal success that today we are able to return to Plan A as we see Omicron in retreat and we learn to live with Covid."

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), Community Pharmacy England (CPE), and the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) have united in urging the government to shield community pharmacies from the impact of the Budget increases. In a joint letter to the health secretary Wes Streeting MP, they have highlighted that rises in employers' National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage could cost community pharmacies £200 million a year in unplanned costs. They have warned the government that 'without mitigation, these additional costs will push many pharmacies more towards insolvency', leading to more closures and cuts to vital health services for patients. From April 2025, the national living wage will increase by 6.7 per cent to £12.21 per hour, and the national minimum wage for 18-20-year-olds will increase by 16.3 per cent to £10 per hour.

Sector leaders have welcomed the NPA ballot results, which demonstrate that community pharmacies are prepared to take collective action if a funding increase is not achieved. Nearly all pharmacy owners, who participated in the NPA ballot, said they were willing to limit their services to protest funding cuts. Commenting on the poll results, Malcolm Harrison, CEO of the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) said: "The results of the NPA ballot serves to underline the huge pressure that pharmacy contractors face, following a decade of underfunding. He emphasised the need to start the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) renegotiations for 2024/25 without delay. "The government and NHS must uplift all elements of the contractual framework, to stop further reductions in pharmacy opening hours and permanent pharmacy closures, and to ensure that patients can continue to receive the medicines and clinical care and advice they need," he added. Harry McQuillan, Chairman of Numark, stated that while the NPA ballot outcome has once again brought the financial crisis facing the sector into focus, this is "an everyday reality" for many independent pharmacies and that it has reached "breaking point." He warned that rising operational costs including the increase in national insurance and minimum wage will push many more to the brink.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has called on the NHS and the Department of Health to immediately publish the government-commissioned analysis of pharmacy underfunding and reveal the true scale of the crisis. Commissioned by NHS England, the long-awaited independent review is expected to "lay bare the perilous financial state" of community pharmacies, which is a vital part of the nation's health infrastructure. However, the NPA is concerned that the government may delay its release until after current funding consultations are concluded. The NPA argued that the public needs to understand the fragile nature of the pharmacy network before any new deal can be agreed. It has also warned health officials not to hide "the true scale of funding needed to reverse a decade of swingeing cuts", which has forced record numbers of pharmacy closures. NPA chair Nick Kaye said: "It would be a scandal to keep that evidence buried secret and leave MPs, pharmacies and the public in the dark." He acknowledged that the new government has inherited a crisis in pharmacy funding and emphasised that it will need to take "strong action" to maintain access to medicines.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have both urged the new health secretary Steve Barclay to back the 'pharmacy first' approach in England as mentioned by his predecessor on numerous occasions. "Sajid Javid recognised the vital role of community pharmacy and the potential of a 'Pharmacy First' to support patient access to care. I would urge the new Health Secretary to see this through to completion," said chair of RPS in England Thorrun Govind. Thorrun hopes the new health secretary will engage with pharmacy leaders about how we can make the most of our health and care workforce to support the NHS recovery, including reducing health inequalities, managing the growing cost of long-term conditions, and utilising the enhanced skills of Pharmacist Independent Prescribers. Commenting on the new appointment, she said: "This is a crucial time for the future of health and care - with continued pressures on teams, changes to NHS structures and organisations, and the need for long-term investment in the workforce. "With a 'refresh' of the NHS Long-Term Plan and the Government's workforce plan expected later this year, these must support a more ambitious approach to advancing the clinical role of pharmacists across the NHS to better meet changing patient demand, backed by investment in pharmacy education and training.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) is bolstering its leadership team with the appointment of Jay Badenhorst as the Director of Pharmacy, a newly created position aimed at fortifying its commitment to advancing pharmacy practice. This move comes amidst a period of significant change and challenge for frontline pharmacists, prompting the independent trade union to enhance its influence in the evolving healthcare landscape. Mr. Badenhorst, who previously served Whitworth Chemists as the Managing Director and also has leveraged his extensive knowledge of the pharmacy practice and organisational leadership as the Vice Chair of the National Pharmacy Association, reasons his "commitment to being at the forefront of positive change within the pharmacy profession." Mr. Badenhorst expressed his enthusiasm stating: "I am delighted to be joining an organisation that has so much vision, ambition and drive at a time when pharmacists have so many opportunities to develop their roles for the benefit of patients." According to Mark Koziol, Chair of PDA, the new position is a reflection of the union's commitment to pharmacy and described the new Director of Pharmacy as "a senior level, proven and award-winning pharmacy leader."

After engaging with contractors and stakeholders of NHS Community Pharmacy, the pharmacy review steering group (RSG) is planning to put proposals to contractors' vote before Easter 2022. The group, made up of representatives from the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, Company Chemists' Association and independent community pharmacy, was formed in late 2020 to explore the future of community pharmacy network support. After engagement with the sector, the RSG has defined the roles of the local and national representative bodies, considered the contractor decision-making process, and worked through analysis and suggestions on local representation. It is now focusing on national representation and support.

Preet Kaur Gill, Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Public Health, has paid a recent visit to a community pharmacy in Staffordshire to personally experience the services it provides to patients, while staying updated on the latest sector developments. Her visit to Eason's Pharmacy in Tamworth on September 22nd marked her first since assuming new responsibilities for pharmacy policy matters within Labour's health team. Gill was also joined by a member of the National Pharmacy Association staff. The Minister received a comprehensive briefing on Eason's Pharmacy from its third-generation owner, Kieran Eason (R). He outlined the NHS services, which include the New Medicines Service and blood pressure monitoring, and showcased two consultation rooms and an operational dispensary. "It's great that Preet came to learn firsthand about the challenges we face and the substantial potential of community pharmacies nationwide," Eason said. "As an independent prescriber, I have the expertise to provide even more convenient care, but the current funding levels severely limit our contribution."

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) survey revealed that 93 per cent of respondents experienced 'at least one month' of negative cash flow across their pharmacy business in 2022. Nine out of 10 pharmacy owners responding to NPA survey said they made a net loss dispensing medicines for the NHS during 2022, for at least one month of the year. According to the poll, 48 per cent of them lost money on this core NHS service for six months or more. 45 per cent said their overall outgoings had exceeded overall income in at least six months of the year. NPA Chair Andrew Lane said: "This survey shows the bleak financial reality facing many independent pharmacies after years of underfunding. Dispensing at a loss and negative cashflow is clearly unsustainable." "This funding crisis must be addressed urgently or pharmacies will fall into a spiral of declining services and ultimately widespread closures, he added. "Tragically, the story is playing out very much in line with independent research commissioned by the NPA last year, which warned of a nationwide financial emergency in our sector."

Community pharmacies are bracing themselves to withdraw services from patients after an industry ballot supported plans for major action unless the government provided a significant increase in funding for the sector. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) on Tuesday (12) announced the results of an unprecedented collective action ballot in which nearly all pharmacy owners, who participated in the ballot, voted to limit their services, insisting that a lack of additional funding is jeopardising patients health and safety. Over 63 per cent of NPA members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the ballot- representing 3,049 independent community pharmacies in England alone, or 3,399 with Wales and Northern Ireland included. Nearly 98 per cent of pharmacy owners in England voted to reduce their opening hours to the minimum required by their contract. This could result in fewer pharmacies remaining open during evenings and weekends. More than 93 per cent voted to stop offering "unfunded" free home deliveries of medicines, and over 96 per cent voted to withdraw from locally commissioned services, including certain addiction support, emergency contraception, and stop smoking services.

Southdowns Pharmacy was honoured for its outstanding efforts to uphold patient safety standards, particularly in the dispensing of valproate, at the recent Independent Pharmacy Association (IPA) Ball 2024 in London. Expressing his joy upon receiving the IPA Patient Safety Award, Nemesh Patel, Managing Director of the Southdowns Pharmacy Group, said: "IPA is an organisation that represents thousands of independent pharmacies, and to achieve such recognition is truly humbling and exciting at the same time. "Our teams work exceptionally hard for their patients and to be recognised amongst hundreds of other pharmacies is truly wonderful." Southdowns Pharmacy Group serves the communities of Emsworth, Havant, Leigh Park, and Rowlands Castle in East Hampshire. Patient Safety Initiatives When asked about the initiatives that earned this accolade, Nemesh explained: "Our teams have completed several audits over the past 24 months to identify patients taking valproate products who may become pregnant. "Pharmacists, including myself, have engaged with these patients to discuss the risks associated with taking valproate during pregnancy."

The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) has appointed David Vanns as its non-executive Chairman following the retirement of its long serving Chair Peter Cattee. Vanns will take up the role from April 2023. Cattee, one of the co-founders of AIMp took up the role as its Chairman in 2000. He is also a non-CCA representative on the PSNC. Despite retiring as chairman Cattee will remain on the AIMp board. Commenting on his retirement Cattee said: "It's been my great good fortune to work with almost all of the owners of pharmacy groups throughout England, Scotland and Wales over the years and many other talented people throughout the sector. It's been during a period of increasing consolidation, something which our own business has reflected, and the original founders and Board members Yakub Patel, Kirit Patel, Steve Williams and David Vanns have all been instrumental in shaping pharmacy negotiations to better reflect the views of our natural constituency - pharmacy group owners. A spokesperson for AIMp said: "We thank Peter for his services and dedication to AIMp throughout the years. Our organisation has grown to be a diverse and dynamic organisation representing and supporting pharmacy groups of all sizes, small and large. Our main identity and what unites us in AIMp, irrespective of the size of the pharmacy group, is being Independents, and we are very proud of our identity. We look forward to continuing our work in representing and supporting our members in the best way possible."

Community pharmacy bodies have said that the current crippling financial pressures and severe staff shortages will limit the sector from fully supporting the new health secretary's ambition to improve patient care in England. Thérèse Coffey announced her plans on Thursday (September 22) which would be looking to reduce the country's reliance on general practice by expanding the range of services available from community pharmacies and allowing pharmacists more "prescribing powers". "Pharmacists will be able to manage and supply more medicines, without a prescription from a GP. We will look to go further on enabling pharmacists with more prescribing powers and making more simple diagnostic tests available in community pharmacy," she said in her foreword to Our Plan for Patients. However, the National Pharmacy Association has lamented that the plan stops short of promising any fresh funding for community pharmacies to deliver patient care and develop clinical services. NPA vice-chair, Nick Kaye, said: "The life is being choked out of independent pharmacy businesses by the continuation of a fundamentally under-resourced contract in England.

Increased demand and shortages of lateral flow tests are pushing staff at pharmacies to bear the brunt from frustrated customers who are unable to get their free lateral flow tests, Daily Mail reported. Some Britons claimed that they have been unable to get lateral flow tests at their local pharmacies for up to a fortnight while some pharmacies were forced to put up sign warning stating they have run out of free tests. Given the patchy supply of test kits, pharmacy bosses warned that staff are facing 'unfair' and 'abusive' behaviour by customers, the newspaper reported.Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP), told the newspaper: "Up until yesterday the supply to pharmacies was still patchy. The past few days the situation has not improved. "Pharmacies are having to put up with a lot of abuse and aggressive behaviours by members of the public because of this situation which is unfair. "The demand is still very high now because the governments guidelines put a lot of emphasis on testing as a key out of self isolation, so naturally as Omicron cases are high people are reliant on tests to get on with daily life."

The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) celebrated achievements of its members during the pandemic at its first annual 'ball and award' ceremony held last week in London. To highlight the important role played by pharmacy teams, the association representing community pharmacy businesses with multiple branches, introduced two award categories - for patient safety and social care. Stephen Walls from H I Weldricks won the Patient Safety Awards and Sandeep Dhami, Nadia Hussain and Sachin Basandrai from MW Phillips won the Social Care Award. Congratulating the winners, Leyla Hannbeck, CEO of AIMp, said that community pharmacy teams "have worked tirelessly to deliver patient care throughout the pandemic." David McNicol, head of sales at AAH Pharmaceuticals, noted that the country and community pharmacy witnessed the toughest 18 months, and the gathering provided an opportunity to discuss ongoing challenges.

Community pharmacies will be able to deliver approximately 15 million blood pressure screenings by 2026, revealed the Company Chemists' Association (CCA)'s new research. This will also prevent 15,000 people from suffering heart attacks or strokes. CCA has called the Government to take up their offer and commission pharmacies as the first port of call for cardiovascular care. "Thousands of lives can be saved with ambitious commissioning and the investment to match," said CCA. There is an opportunity to use the expertise of community pharmacy to go further and provide the care these newly identified patients' need. To do this the sector needs funding and workforce. The association said: "Community pharmacy is under great financial pressure, suffering a real term funding cut of over 30% over 8 years. With funding, the sector can transform to deliver this critical need for patients. Whilst there are plans to train Independent Prescribers (IPs), there are no clear roles for them to use these skills. There is a need to accelerate training plans to allow pharmacists to deliver the service described here and play their part in CVD management."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has initiated the process for the regional representative election for the North-East and Cumbria region after Mark Burdon's resignation from the committee earlier this year. The North-East and Cumbria region covers Community Pharmacy County Durham, Community Pharmacy Cumbria, Gateshead and South Tyneside LPC, North of Tyne LPC, Sunderland LPC and Tees LPC. PSNC said that Pharmacists who are independent chemists and members or officers of these LPCs are eligible to stand for election as a new regional representative. "An independent chemist is defined in the PSNC constitution as a chemist operating retail pharmacy businesses' from no more than nine premises in England from which NHS Pharmaceutical Services or Local Pharmaceutical Services are provided and a person who is not a member of the Association of Independent Multiple pharmacies (AIMp)," said PSNC. The following PSNC briefing sets out the election process and the actions required by those seeking to stand for election.

Patients are highly satisfied with the new Pharmacy First service, which enables pharmacists to assess and treat patients for seven common conditions, according to a survey by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Nearly 100 NPA members participated in the snapshot poll conducted at the end of the first full week of the service. Nine in ten respondents (87 per cent) said that "most or all patients expressed satisfaction" with the service they received. However, many independent community pharmacy owners are facing challenges in implementing the service. While 56 per cent of pharmacy owners surveyed expressed feeling "motivated" by the new service, a larger proportion (70 per cent) indicated being "under additional pressure." More than 30 per cent of the respondents found implementation of the service "harder" than they had expected.