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Wes Streeting's speech at the Labour Party Conference 2024 outlines several key health and social care reforms, which hold significant implications for community pharmacy in England. His focus on reforming and rebuilding the NHS to ensure fair, universal access to care, with prevention and early intervention at its core, presents both opportunities and challenges for community pharmacy. Here are the potential implications: 1. Prevention Focus Streeting's vision of a shift from a reactive, hospital-based model to a preventive healthcare system presents a promising future for community pharmacies. These changes could significantly reduce pressures on GPs and hospitals, integrating pharmacies more closely into primary care networks and enhancing their role in preventive care. 2. Digital Transformation The move from an "analogue to digital" NHS could see community pharmacies adopting more digital tools and systems for service delivery. This would likely involve greater use of digital prescribing, telehealth consultations, and AI-driven services. Pharmacies will need to invest in digital infrastructure and ensure that pharmacy professionals are trained to operate within a more tech-centric environment. 3. Reform and Redistribution of Services Streeting's plans to extend choice and equitable access to services mean that community pharmacies could become integral to providing care in underserved or disadvantaged areas. With a focus on decentralising healthcare and bringing it closer to local communities, community pharmacies could play a more significant role in supporting healthcare delivery in areas where GP services are stretched. This may include expanding access to pharmacy services in the most deprived areas, aligning with Labour's emphasis on addressing health inequalities.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting has on Wednesday laid out his vision for reforming the National Health Service, stating that the NHS is "broken but not beaten" after years of Conservative governance. In his address to the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Streeting highlighted the current challenges facing the NHS, including record-high waiting lists, ambulance delays, and difficulties in accessing GP appointments. Stressing that "reform or die" is the choice facing the NHS, he rejected the idea of simply increasing funding without systemic changes. Streeting noted some initial successes since Labour took office, including employing 1,000 more GPs and negotiating an end to junior doctors' strikes. He revealed that crack teams of top clinicians will be deployed to hospitals across the country to roll out reforms: to treat more patients and cut waiting lists.

Healthcare reform emerged as a cornerstone of the Labour Party's manifesto leading up to the recent general election. A standout pledge was the establishment of a Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service, aimed at granting pharmacists independent prescribing rights where clinically suitable. This initiative is seen as a positive step in addressing critical challenges within the National Health Service (NHS). Numark Chairman Harry McQuillan praised Labour's recognition of pharmacists' role in patient care through expanded prescribing rights. "Let's be honest, pharmacists are an underutilised resource within the healthcare system. We possess extensive training and expertise, yet our full potential hasn't always been acknowledged. "By harnessing pharmacists expanded prescribing rights, Labour is acknowledging our significant role in patient care. This initiative aims to recognise our skills and enhance patient care, ensuring quicker access to necessary treatments," he said. However, he pointed out that the concept requires further exploration, as the rights to prescribe are already granted through the recent change to undergraduate training that incorporates prescribing.

Wes Streeting MP has been appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the new Labour Government. The Ilford North MP will now take on the critical role of overseeing the National Health Service (NHS) and implementing Labour's ambitious health agenda. At the core of the Labour Party's healthcare reform manifesto is enhancing accessibility to primary and community healthcare. This involves implementing a 'Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service,' to empower pharmacists with independent prescribing rights where clinically suitable. This initiative aims to alleviate the strain on GP practices and enhance service accessibility. Additionally, the manifesto proposes piloting Neighbourhood Health Centres, to integrate various healthcare services -such as family doctors, district nurses, and mental health specialists under one roof.

Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock highlighted the role of community pharmacies in the Labour government's proposed healthcare reform during his speech at the 24th annual Pharmacy Business Awards on Wednesday. He outlined the government's vision for three strategic shifts: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. Emphasising the crucial role that community pharmacies will play in achieving these changes, he said: "Pharmacies are based in, and recruit from, and are part of their communities, and we have to put you right at the heart of those three shifts if we are to deliver the change that our country so desperately needs." Kinnock also acknowledged the contribution of pharmacies in safeguarding the nation's health. He stated: "I've already heard, just in the short time that I've been in government since 4 July, of many examples of just how much patients and communities rely on your services and the lengths to which you go to deliver care."

The Labour government published its elective care reform plan today (6 January), outlining the necessary steps to reduce patient waiting times, including expanding non-surgical ENT [ear, nose and throat] services in community pharmacies. As set out in its 'Plan for Change', the government aims to restore the constitutional standard of 92 per cent of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks by March 2029. Additionally, it plans to address the ongoing challenges in meeting cancer waiting time standards. Health secretary Wes Streeting emphasised the urgency of reform, highlighting that over 6 million people are currently on a waiting list, waiting for more than 7 million episodes of care, like a test or an operation. Streeting said: "For those millions of people, the fundamental promise of our NHS - that it will be there for us when we need it - has not been delivered. This can't go on." "The actions in this plan will reform elective care, giving patients timely local access to diagnostic testing, with straight to test pathways and action to reform outpatient care,

Rising chronic illnesses and an aging population are threatening to bankrupt the National Health Service, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said on October 11. Streeting announced a substantial £1.1 billion injection to strengthen the NHS with the goal of clearing the backlog and introducing additional clinics on evenings and weekends. The frontbencher outlined a reform agenda to ensure NHS is back on its head for the future of healthcare in the UK. Streeting said that a Labour government will not waste "money we don't have"- instead aims to revolutionise the NHS by shifting its focus from hospitals to communities. "Our emphasis is on transitioning from an analogue to a digital framework and prioritising prevention over sickness-oriented healthcare," he noted.

With the Labour Party now in power, there is keen interest in the healthcare initiatives they pledged during their election campaign and how these proposals will shape the future of NHS. One of the key pledges in their healthcare reform is the introduction of the Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service, which aims to empower pharmacists with independent prescribing rights where clinically suitable. While pharmacists appreciated Labour's acknowledgment of their role in patient care through expanded prescribing rights, they foresee some challenges in implementing the service. "Budgets will be a key issue," said Pharmacist Thorrun Govind, also a Healthcare Lawyer (Brabners LLP). However, she noted that, given the success of pharmacist prescribing services in the devolved nations, there is "a road map in place."

At the Future of Britain Conference 2024, the newly appointed Secretary of Health and Social Care, (DHSC) Wes Streeting, stated that "Labour's DNA is in the NHS". He also called for a long-term approach to reform the broken health sector and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) to steer the healthcare system towards sustainability and growth. Hosted by Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and My Life My Say today, Tuesday, 9, Streeting discussed the plans to fix the healthcare system and role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in "making the right choices" by bringing in three essential shifts in the healthcare. Criticising the previous Conservative administration for leaving "massive burning deck issues" due to constant reshuffling within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Streeting lamented that this "instability" and "indecisions" have made comprehensive reform even more pressing. Drawing inspiration from Chancellor Rachel Reeves' speech on economic growth, Streeting stressed the interconnectedness of health and economic prosperity.

The Labour government has launched the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth, calling on the entire country to share their experiences of the health service. The feedback will be used to shape the government's 10 Year Health Plan to fix the "broken" health service and deliver its mission to build an NHS fit for the future. Members of the public, as well as NHS staff and experts, are invited to share their experiences, views and ideas for the future of NHS via a new online platform that goes live today. The Change NHS online platform, which will be live until the start of next year, is also available via the NHS App. The public engagement exercise will focus on three shifts in healthcare - hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

The new Labour government has pledged to deliver an extra 40,000 NHS appointments, operations and diagnostics every week, equivalent to two million a year, to tackle the ongoing waiting list crisis. It aims to ensure that 92 per cent of patients start routine hospital treatment within 18 weeks by the end of this parliament - a target that has not been met for nearly a decade. However, a new analysis by healthcare consultancy CF (Carnall Farrar) and the NHS Confederation has revealed that these extra appointments alone will not be enough to achieve the 18-week Referral To Treatment (RTT) target by 2028/29. The study estimates that 40,000 extra appointments per week would deliver only about 15 per cent of the additional activity required to hit the 18-week target, assuming demand continues to grow at current rates and care delivery remains unchanged. While the report acknowledged that increasing capacity is a positive step, it stresses that further reforms and transformations in care pathways are necessary to bridge the gap.

The 14th Community Pharmacy Conference by Sigma Pharmaceuticals has been timely, prime minister Rishi Sunak said, noting that it coincided with the launch of Pharmacy First, a new initiative that enables patients to receive treatments for seven common conditions directly from a pharmacist without the need for a GP appointment or prescription. "We are all grateful for the tremendous contributions that pharmacists make to our NHS. The fantastic work you do is critical to the success of Pharmacy First and many other initiatives," Sunak said in a written message. The conference was organised from 25-29 February at Sun City in Johannesburg, South Africa, under the theme 'community pharmacy in an integrated NHS'. In a recorded video address to the Sigma Conference, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said community pharmacies are 'critical' to the Labour party's mission to make the NHS 'fit for the future'. "You should be playing a much more significant role. Labour's reform agenda will get pharmacists working to the top of their licence. We want community pharmacists to play a greater role in healthcare, with more focus on their expertise in prescribing and medicines management," he said.

In his first speech as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting MP acknowledged that the NHS is in crisis while outlining his mission to save the health service. Streeting described the current state of the NHS as "broken," noting its failure to meet the needs of both patients and dedicated healthcare professionals. "When we said during the election campaign, that the NHS was going through the biggest crisis in its history, we meant it. "When we said that patients are being failed on a daily basis, it wasn't political rhetoric, but the daily reality faced by millions," he said on Friday (5 July). The new health secretary remarked that previous governments had been unwilling to admit these simple facts.