In a stirring address at the recent conference on Pharmacy at the Westminster Health Forum, Director of NHS Services at Community Pharmacy England (CPE),
Alastair Buxton presented a stark assessment of the community pharmacy sector's challenges.
Highlighting years of financial constraints imposed by the NHS and government, Buxton warned of a sector teetering on the edge of survival.
"There have been no years of financial and operational squeezes applied by the NHS and
government to the community pharmacy sector, so as a consequence, there are a lot of pharmacies that are on the on the brink of survival -battling for survival,"
he said.
Buxton underscored the critical and indispensable role of community pharmacies in delivering essential NHS services, from dispensing medications to innovative
initiatives like the Discharge Medicine Service and Contraception Service.
In significant development, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has advised its Boots members to challenge the "trustees' decision to end the
ability to take an unreduced pension from age 60 by submitting complaints through the scheme's two-stage internal disputes procedure".
The issue centers around the alterations made to pension scheme rules without the adequate disclosure to scheme members or their representatives.
The PDA has drafted template letters to assist scheme members in response to undisclosed changes during a buyout process, sparking legal challenges and demands
for transparency from Boots and scheme trustees.
Paul Moloney, National Officer of the PDA Union leading the campaign, expressed concern over the sudden withdrawal of the right to an unreduced pension from age 60.
"We have always maintained that members had a right under the rules to draw an unreduced pension from age 60," Moloney stated.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting reiterated his commitment to reducing NHS waiting lists during his visit to Frimley Health NHS Foundation
Trust's Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot on Friday.
Streeting toured the Berkshire hospital, which is helping tackle backlogs of planned operations with dedicated surgical services, thereby cutting local waiting lists.
The health secretary spoke to staff and patients at the hospital before meeting regional health representatives to discuss the issues facing services at a town
hall event.
His visit follows his recent call for an independent investigation into the NHS, pledging to be honest about the state of the health service and serious about
fixing it.
"The NHS is broken. Millions of patients are waiting too long for treatment, often in pain and discomfort," Streeting said.
A massive global technology outage on Friday has disrupted essential services, including healthcare, airlines, banks, and broadcasters worldwide.
The outage, attributed to a flawed update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has also affected the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, with several hospitals
and GP practices losing access to their computer systems.
Community pharmacies are also facing significant disruptions. Services such as accessing prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries have been affected, causing
inconvenience to patients and healthcare providers.
An NHS spokesperson said: "The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in
the majority of GP practices."
The spokesperson assured that the NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage such disruptions, including the use of paper patient records and handwritten
prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact GPs.
The latest NHS data showed that 487,432 individuals in England were diagnosed with dementia in June, the highest since the start of the pandemic.
Although dementia diagnosis rates have reached 65 per cent, the NHS still aims to meet its target of diagnosing 66.7 per cent of the estimated total number of
people living with a form of the disease.
NHS stated that their staff across the country are actively assessing care home residents to identify more individuals who may have dementia.
Dr. Jeremy Isaacs, National Clinical Director for Dementia at NHS England, praised the efforts of NHS staff in increasing diagnosis rates but acknowledged that
more work is needed.
"Getting a diagnosis of dementia is the first step in supporting people, with a wide range of NHS services able to help.
A recent survey conducted by YouGov for the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has highlighted concerning trends in the community pharmacy sector.
The survey published on July 18 and conducted over two days in June this year reveals the subsequent challenges patients face due to the increasing pharmacy
closure rates.
The survey findings, conducted among 2,183 UK adults, indicates that 18 per cent of the respondents reported at least one pharmacy closure in their local area
within the past year.
Specifically, 12 per cent respondents noted closure of one pharmacy, while 6 per cent observed the shutdown of more than one.
These closures are distributed across various regions, underscoring a nationwide issue rather than an isolated one.
