Well Pharmacy has acquired three new pharmacies taking the total number of pharmacies owned by the chain across the UK to 746.
The UK's largest independent and third largest pharmacy chain has bought Pharmacy Express in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and two Frosts Pharmacy's in Banbury, North
Oxfordshire, and Marston, near Oxford. All three pharmacies will be rebranded. #
Well did not disclose the amount it paid for the new acquisitions.
Operations director of Well Pharmacy Louis Purchase said that the group was "excited" to expand. "We believe passionately in community pharmacy, and we want our
offering to be the best experience of this in the UK. We also hope our new colleagues can keep progressing and develop their clinical skills even further by being
part of Well Pharmacy."
Frosts Pharmacy teams have joined Well from their pharmacies based in Ferriston, Banbury, North Oxfordshire and Marston, near Oxford. They both serve local people
from the heart of their communities and offer a successful travel vaccination clinic in Marston.
England's chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) David Webb has promised his "wholehearted support" for the community pharmacy sector at the board meeting of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) on 28 June in St Albans.
After hearing the CPhO at the meeting, NPA chair, Andrew Lane, later declared: "David is someone we can do business with."
Webb thus listed his priorities as head of profession: integration of independent prescribing as part of pharmacy practice by 2026; promotion of inclusive pharmacy
practice for all pharmacy professionals; assurance of post-registration practice; developing the role of pharmacy technicians; support for Integrated Care Systems
and Primary Care Network pharmacy teams (including community pharmacy); medicines optimisation; and strengthening of professional leadership for community pharmacy.
He also reported that NHS England had recently increased its team of regional pharmacy integration leads from seven to 14, creating seven new senior posts.
Webb told NPA board members: "I want sincerely to thank community pharmacy teams for everything they are doing and to say that you have my wholehearted support. I believe in the importance of community pharmacy and will listen and engage as I've already demonstrated.
Increased cooperation between countries is needed to ensure better regulation of online pharmacies, said authors of a new report - 'Online pharmacy operations and distribution of medicines', published by the International Pharmaceutical Federation's (FIP) Community Pharmacy Section.
The report presents findings of a global survey of pharmacy organisations covering various aspects, such as type of medicines supplied by these pharmacies in different countries, how the authenticity of online pharmacies can be verified, and the usage of e-prescriptions and shared patient health records.
Of the 79 countries responding to the survey, 51 per cent acknowledged that no regulation of online pharmacies exists.
A quarter of the respondents reported cases of irresponsible self-medication by consumers who had purchased medicines through online pharmacies.
A lack of regulation creates "an avenue for illegal pharmacies and may impact the overall quality of medicines and services offered to consumers," authors of
the report said.
Lars-Åke Söderlund, immediate past president of FIP's Community Pharmacy Section and co-editor of the report, said that the pandemic has increased preference for online services, including in the pharmacy sector.
A winter NHS crisis is inevitable unless the government acts now to reverse the worrying decline in community pharmacies. Years of government underfunding could
see 3,000 pharmacies in England - around a third of the network - having no option but to shut their doors to patients in the next few years.
That figure is based on independent assessments from Ernst & Young and UCL/LSE healthcare professors: it is not scaremongering - it is the reality the country faces.
Fifty per cent of pharmacies are already in financial distress because government funding has been falling in real terms since 2019 and that figure is predicted to
rise to 75 per cent within the next two years.
The government needs to act now and invest in pharmacy or sleepwalk into a healthcare disaster as we have seen with access to dentistry care. Prescription volumes
have risen consistently year-on-year by roughly 2 per cent which means fewer pharmacies doing more work and under greater pressure than a decade ago. Ten years ago
around 11,200 pharmacies in England were dispensing roughly 79,000 prescriptions; nowadays around 11,500 are dispensing roughly 89,000 prescriptions.
The secretary of state recently asked pharmacy to do more to avoid a winter NHS crisis and at the same time said there will be no new money to pay for those
additional services. This at a time when the network is in decline with random unplanned pharmacy closures - 640 closures since 2016 - and pharmacy staff face huge
workload pressures as prescription demand is increasing year-on-year. The government's approach to pharmacy literally does not add up: the pharmacy contract is not
fit-for-purpose now let alone dealing with a NHS winter crisis.
Achieving the community pharmacy vision necessitates legal adjustments and additional funding beyond recent boosts, the pharmacy vision document published
by Nuffield Trust and The King's Fund has revealed. It says community pharmacies in England must adapt to changing population needs amidst unprecedented health
and care challenges.
Commissioned by Community Pharmacy England, the report titled 'A Vision for Community Pharmacy', published on Sept. 19, is a result of almost a year of research
and extensive consultation with the sector and wider stakeholders, advocating for community pharmacy. The think tanks detail a shift in the community pharmacy
sector, highlighting how pharmacies can contribute to crucial policy objectives regarding population health, prevention, and the increasing demand in primary care.
"The health and care needs of the population are evolving, and pharmacies in England, like all components of the health and care system, must adjust to address
these changes," said Helen Buckingham, Director of Strategy at Nuffield Trust.
As we transition in England through yet another NHS organisational change, I ask myself what does this mean for community pharmacy? I would like to think that
this change will bring about opportunity and a chance for community pharmacy to showcase and continue the excellent work that was carried out during the height of
the pandemic and is still ongoing today.
I hope that it allows community pharmacy to be regarded as part of the NHS rather than sitting on the side lines. This change has to lead to better funding for
community pharmacy, without sufficient funding we will see more pharmacies close.
We are hearing a lot about winter pressures but this year it feels like all year round pressure. What I have seen, whilst the NHS is under such pressure, is North
East London (NEL) CCG transitioning to an integrated care board (ICB) almost seamlessly.
I have seen people transitioning into new roles, whilst working hard to ensure that all plates are still spinning, which at the moment is no mean feat. I spent a
day out recently visiting pharmacies with the chief medical officer of NHS NEL, Dr Paul Gilluley.
The visits were positive, we felt listened to and understood. The feedback was great, it was recognised that community pharmacy is often the informal front door to
the NHS and that we have so much to offer in terms of ill health prevention.
Community pharmacy can offer a total solution as long as we have the tools to do so, which can save so much time and money. An example is the GP CPCS service, which
has launched well across NEL.
Pharmacy Business will be hosting their annual awards event in the pharmacy calendar with a glittering ceremony to celebrate the very best of community pharmacy.
The 23rd edition of the Pharmacy Business Awards will be on Wednesday 4 October 2023 in central London.
The awards attract the biggest names in pharmacy, with heads of pharmacy organisations, CEOs of leading manufacturers and wholesalers, health officials and
government ministers in attendance.
We look forward to bringing together the shining lights of community pharmacy, who show the nation the unique services they continue to provide.
REASONS TO ATTEND
Understand what the ambitions of the NHS and PSNC are for the future of community pharmacy
Understand why its important to develop a wider range of health services
Learn how others are achieving this and what the benefits can be
Learn what the benefits of embracing technological innovations are
Hear what others are doing and what the benefits are to their business
Network with and learn from your peers in community pharmacy
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Pharmacy owners
Pharmacy managers
Other pharmacy stakeholders
Exciting news! Pharmacy Business Awards 2023 are just around the corner!
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee on Tuesday (June 30) renamed itself as Community Pharmacy England, promising a "strengthened commitment" to
champion and engage with the sector.
"The name Community Pharmacy England better reflects the breadth of work that we do to both represent and support community pharmacies in England. We are their
champion," the pharmacy negotiator said.
Explaining that the rebranding exercise was in line with proposals put forward by the Review Steering Group (RSG), it said the rebrand was part of its Transforming
Pharmacy Representation (TAPR) work and that it would signal the beginning of a "new engagement strategy" to build stronger relationships with pharmacy owners.
"Becoming Community Pharmacy England is much more than a name change or a new logo, it is a driver for cultural change across our organisation.
"Our members want us to be more authoritative, representative, and influential, and rebranding gives us a clearer and stronger voice, helping us to better speak out
for community pharmacy."
Charac, an NHS-integrated one-stop platform for independent community pharmacies, and Positive Solutions, the fastest growing pharmacy IT provider in the UK,
have agreed on a collaboration to support community pharmacies through new integrated technology platform - MyHealthHub.
The tech platform aims to give pharmacies a powerful and compelling tool to both help retain and attract new patients. The app will also allow the over 7,200
independent high street pharmacies which are lacking a digital footprint to compete with larger online pharmacies by providing them with an online presence.
The long-term strategic partnership brings together Charac's innovative approach to patient relationship management and Positive Solutions trusted expertise in
digital solutions for pharmacy.
With Positive Solutions' Analyst PMR used daily by 16,000 pharmacy team members to process over 87 million scripts and 180 million items, the collaboration will
help transform patient engagement and continue driving service business to pharmacies across the UK using a new innovative, integrative technology platform,
MyHealthHub.
MyHealthHub will not only integrate with Analyst PMR, but also forms part of an entire new technology ecosystem from Positive Solutions, the Hx platform and will
be entirely interoperable.
National pharmacy bodies have called on the government and NHS leaders to take appropriate action to keep pharmacy teams safe from violence and abuse.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) - in collaboration with the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company Chemists'
Association (CCA), the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) - is supporting an important petition started by Mike Hewitson,
a community pharmacy contractor, who has been threatened with stabbing and robbed in his own pharmacy.
The PSNC and the other national pharmacy bodies strongly believe that no healthcare professional should have to deal with this, that and pharmacists and their teams
should be better protected.
It said: "Community pharmacies play an integral role in the delivery of primary care and most patients are highly appreciative of the hard work of local pharmacists
and pharmacy teams from dispensing medicines and administering vaccines to providing medical advice and health monitoring services.
Stone Pharmacy in Barnsley, South Yorkshire has been sold to existing operator, Livesey Healthcare, which owns another pharmacy in East Lancashire for an
undisclosed price.
Stone Pharmacy is a well-established, 100-hour community pharmacy that is run under full management with a locum Pharmacist, and dispenses an average of 22,000
items per month. The business adjoins Garland House surgery in the South Yorkshire village of Darfield, which is circa six miles east of Barnsley and circa 14 miles
north of Sheffield.
The pharmacy has been owned by experienced operators, Khuram Akhtar and Mohammed Ali, trading as MEDS2U Ltd, for the last seven years, and was recently brought to
market to allow the pair to pursue new ventures both in and out of community pharmacy.
Khuram Akhtar, former owner of Stone Pharmacy, commented: "The business at Stone Pharmacy has been a fantastic enterprise for many years for us, with limited
competition and a position central to the local community we have always enjoyed the support of the nearby population and are pleased that it is now in the hands
of experienced operators who can build on that foundation with the expansion of new services.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched a partnership with the charity Marie Curie to develop professional standards in end of life care for community pharmacy.
Available for pharmacy teams across the UK, the standards will provide a free, evidence-based framework to help community pharmacies self-assess and continuously improve their end of life and bereavement care for patients and carers.
They will enable community pharmacy teams to work together to develop their own practice.
RPS is setting up a professional standard steering group which will have community pharmacy experts, experts within the field of palliative and end of life care,
lay members, and healthcare professionals who interact with community pharmacy.
Elen Jones, director lead for palliative care work at RPS, said: "RPS has a long-term commitment, striving to ensure that people living with life-limiting conditions
who are approaching the end of life have timely access to medicines and clinical support from a skilled pharmacy team.
"The development of these standards, in partnership with Marie Curie, is a crucial step to support community pharmacy teams to undertake simple quality improvement
measures and build upon the care they already provide to this group of patients and carers."
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s 2022 Pharmacy Advice Audit revealed that more than 1.2 million consultations a week - or 65 million
a year - are now being carried out by community pharmacy teams in England.
This is an increase from 2021, when the audit results suggested that in total pharmacies were providing 58 million consultations per year.
PSNC has published the findings of the audit of over 4,000 community pharmacies carried out earlier this year. During the audit, 82,872 informal patient consultations
were recorded, with the average pharmacy completing 19 consultations per day.
This suggests that more than 1.2 million informal consultations are taking place in community pharmacies in England every week.
The audit helped to quantify the number of informal referrals being made to pharmacies by GPs and NHS 111, with 7,774 informal patient referrals into pharmacy
coming from these routes; grossed up to a national level that means 117,000 cases per week.
These are all referrals that could and should have been made by the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS).
Lloyds Pharmacy's closure of all its 1,300 branches will wake-up the ministers and NHS officials to the reality of community pharmacy sector in England has
reached crisis point, expressed Nigel Swift Managing Director of Rowlands pharmacy and Deputy Managing Director of PHOENIX UK.
On Friday, The SUN reported that the UK's second largest pharmacy provider - is allegedly in the process of selling its entire estate of 1300 branches. Lloyds
Pharmacy will no longer be a High Street presence following its decision to put all its pharmacy branches at the risk of closure. In January it has announced to
close its 237 Sainsbury-based pharmacies.
Nigel highlighted the fact that community pharmacy is struggling due to insufficient government funding and immense pressures on GPs and A&E departments - an ongoing
issue which poses a very real threat to the sector.
Commenting on the announcement, he said: "It's not just Lloyds - an independent analysis by Ernst & Young estimated that 75% of community pharmacies will be in
financial distress in the coming years. £750 million has been taken out of the English contract due to inflation since it began."
Well Pharmacy has announced the acquisition of Lexon UK Holdings and Asurex Limited, a family-owned pharmaceutical wholesaler with five depots in Redditch,
Leeds, Durham, East Kilbride and Dublin and a network of community pharmacies across the Midlands, Northwest, and Northeast of England.
Lexon, is a family-owned business which has been in operation for over 25 years, running primarily as a pharmaceutical wholesaler for 3,000 retail pharmacy
customers across the UK and Ireland.
The business also operates 42 community pharmacies - currently trading as Knights Pharmacy - and is also a specialist developer and manufacturer of generic
pharmaceuticals and is a data and solutions provider to pharmacy.
The acquisition will be notified to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Both parties have proactively engaged with the CMA in pre-notification discussions and look forward to continuing to do so productively during the CMA review period.
Haider Choudrey, CFO of Bestway Group which own Well Pharmacy, said: "Through this acquisition we seek to augment our growth momentum and bring in even greater
benefits to both community pharmacies and patients. Well Pharmacy had been searching for a target to expand its footprint and complement its growth trajectory and
we are confident that Lexon fits this criterion."
National pharmacy bodies have expressed their disappointment on the launch date for Tier 1 of the Pharmacy Contraception Service which has been announced by
NHS England (NHSE) as '24th April 2023′.
Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said that this start date for the service has not been agreed with PSNC and is in direct contradiction of our
warning to Ministers that no new or expanded services can be rolled out in 2023/24 unless extra funding is put into community pharmacies.
Responding to this announcement, PSNC Chief Executive Janet Morrison said: "This is despite our warning last month that without additional funding, the roll-out of
Year 5 additional services and the Pharmacy Quality Scheme is neither feasible nor affordable. Community pharmacies are having to work harder and harder for less
money and many are at breaking point. And just this week the results of our 2023 Pharmacy Pressures Survey have confirmed the worsening situation.
Clearly our view is not because contractors don't see the benefit of the service. This is a much-anticipated service that could deliver real benefits to patients and
community pharmacies are always eager to support public health initiatives. But capacity in the sector is now so stretched that more money is needed to safely
resource additional work.
We have repeated our concerns to the Department in recent days and reminded them of the potential for a properly funded community pharmacy sector to play a greater
role in providing clinical solutions and relieving pressures elsewhere in primary care."
A group of 21 community pharmacies in the Midlands and Yorkshire will have a new name - Pickfords Pharmacy.
The group has been created by combining three independent pharmacy businesses which traded as Mr Pickford's, McGills Pharmacy and D&R Sharp.
All pharmacies in the new group will be rebranded over the coming months, with a series of launch events planned by local teams.
Speaking after the unveiling of the first branch to receive new signage in Hexthorpe Doncaster, Mimi Lau, Pickfords Pharmacy's chief operating officer, said:
"This is a turning point for the group, with all our pharmacies operating under one name with a consistent, contemporary brand.
"Initial reaction has been fantastic and very soon the name Pickfords Pharmacy will be widely recognised for the great service we deliver to customers and patients
every day."
Speaking of the consolidation, Nick Yarrow, the newly appointed group chief executive officer, commented: "Since the enlarged group came together last year, we have
been striving to ensure that the best elements of each business have been retained for the benefit of our customers and team members.
"This is part of our journey to be more than just a pharmacy - we want to be a trusted source of healthcare services at the heart of each one of the communities we
serve".
Representatives from the national community pharmacy bodies will brief the MPs on the severe challenges facing community pharmacies on Tuesday (21 March) at a
roundtable summit.
The roundtable summit will include discussions on the urgent action needed to address the current severe challenges being faced by community pharmacy, as well as the
sector's role in the upcoming Primary Care Recovery Plan, said PSNC.
The Parliamentary event this week has been coordinated by PSNC as part of the joint #SaveOurPharmacies campaign which exceeded 30,000 signatories in a week.
The Association of Independent Pharmacies (AIM), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and PSNC will take part at the
event.
A spokesperson for the #SaveOurPharmacies campaign group said: "30,000 signatures in a week indicates a high level of underlying public support for community pharmacy
and it's a good start to the #SaveOurPharmacies campaign. A petition by itself won't change the world, but it works as a kind of drumbeat for the campaign, giving
forward momentum, and it's a really easy way to express your opinion.
We hope the new window poster - along with all the resources available at saveourpharmacies.co.uk - will help as many pharmacies as possible to drum up support from
their patients, and we're really grateful to Communications International Group for helping us to print and distribute this.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pharmacy published a new report on Monday (January 23) that calls for "urgent action" to relieve funding pressure
so there are "opportunities" for community pharmacy teams to deliver even more for their patients.
The report highlights the need for a new "strategic vision" for pharmacy and highlights opportunities for the network to be empowered to deliver even more for
patients.
However, the manifesto also underlines that there are the very real risks that this opportunity may be lost if significant and ongoing pressures are not addressed.
The recommendations are based on written and oral evidence gathered from frontline pharmacists, GPs, professional bodies and healthcare experts.
To harness the potential of pharmacy, the report recommends the Government must take urgent action to relieve the funding pressures on the community pharmacy sector
in the short term and review the long-term funding model for pharmacy.
It also suggested the Government must harness the power of pharmacy to help the NHS deal with the COVID-19 backlog and the UK's growing healthcare challenges.
It further recommended that future commissioning and funding must recognise that community pharmacy is the front door to the NHS for many patients.
The pharmacy bodies have welcomed Health Select Committee's inquiry into pharmacy services and are calling the community pharmacies to engage fully.
On Thursday (8 June), MPs launched a new inquiry to examine the 'readiness of pharmacy services'. At the end of the inquiry, the committee will be making
recommendations to the government on what action needs to be taken to ensure the potential of pharmacy is realised. It is currently seeking views and evidence
from anyone who can answer any or some of the questions listed here by Thursday 6 July.
National Pharmacy Association (NPA), Company Chemists' Association (CCA) and Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) have confirmed that they will be submitting the
written evidence.
RPS said it will be submitting written evidence, and if they are called to give oral evidence they'll do so.
Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of the CCA commented: "We welcome the Health Committee's much-awaited inquiry into pharmacy. Whilst the recent announcement of
investment into the sector is welcome, this is new money for new activity. The historic underfunding of community pharmacy remains, and Primary Care Networks
(PCNs) continue to directly recruit community pharmacists.